U.S. equity futures edged higher in early Wednesday trading, while Treasury yields and the dollar resumed their recent climbs, as investors looked to tempered risk from the Russia-Ukraine conflict while they prep for a key earnings release from the world's most-valuable company.
Updated at 8:26 AM EST
Spin City
Comcast (CMCSA) shares jumped higher in early trading after the media group confirmed plans to spin-off some of its cable networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, into a stand-alone company.
The group, which will be established next year, will also include digital assets such as Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango, which, when combined with the other brands in the new 'SpinCo' portfolio, generated around $7 billion in revenues over the three months ending in September.
“When you look at our assets, talented management team and balance sheet strength, we are able to set these businesses up for future growth,” said CEO Brain Roberts. “With significant financial resources from day one, will be ideally positioned for success and highly attractive to investors, content creators, distributors and potential partners.”
Comcast shares were marked 2.1% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $43.20 each.
Updated at 6:43 AM EST
Off Target
Target shares plummeted in early trading after the retailer posted weaker-than-expected third quarter earnings and issued a muted forecast for the crucial holiday season.
Target, which has been losing market share to Walmart, sees fiscal-fourth-quarter profit in the region of $1.85 to $2.45 a share, well shy of Wall Street forecasts, citing "soft discretionary trends and multiple cost headwinds."
Target shares were marked 20.3% lower in premarket trading immediately following the earnings release to indicate an opening-bell price of $124.
Stock Market Today
Stocks ended higher on Tuesday after an afternoon rally pulled both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq into positive territory as Russia played down changes to its nuclear doctrine following strikes by U.S.-made missiles from Ukraine.
The unwinding of safe-haven trades, which had pushed U.S. Treasury bond yields sharply lower, was also evident in overnight trading, where bitcoin hit a fresh all-time high and traded north of $94,000 and gold fell around 0.3% per ounce amid the improving sentiment.
Treasury yields were back on the move heading into the New York trading session, with benchmark 10-year notes pegged at 4.418% and 2-year paper changing hands at 4.289%.
Nvidia, the world's most-valuable company, reports its fiscal third quarter earnings after the close of trading.
Getty
On Wall Street the focus will likely shift to a busy corporate-earnings slate, with updates from retailer Target (TGT) before the bell and Nvidia (NVDA) after the close of trading.
Nvidia, which represents around 7.5% of the weighting of the S&P 500 and around 9% of the Nasdaq, is expected to post a huge 83% surge in overall revenue, which are forecast at $33.1 billion, and to guide investors to double-digit gains on the back of Blackwell GPU demand in the tech giant's fiscal fourth quarter.
"Nvidia heads into earnings with elevated expectations," said Hightower's chief investment officer Stephanie Link. "The stock is up 172% [this year] and 5% over the past month, with anticipation of a beat-and-raise tempered by potential revenue deceleration as the market awaits the [next-generation] Blackwell product."
"Despite the stock trading at 37 times, Nvidia remains the leader in AI, with accelerated bookings from cloud service providers and significant hyperscaler spend growth (17% quarter over quarter)," she added. "While I see early innings for AI, I’m more of a buyer on weakness than chasing here."
With that update in focus, and with options traders braced for price swings of around 9% in either direction for a $3.6 trillion stock after Nvidia reports, markets are set for a muted open to start the trading day.
Futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a modest 10-point opening-bell gain while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are priced for a 35-point bump.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile is called 13 points higher with Nvidia marked 0.25% in the green and changing hands at $147.35.
In overseas markets, a faster-than-expected reading for U.K. inflation put a cap on bets for a December rate cut from the Bank of England and held down gains for the FTSE 100, which was marked 0.16% higher in midday London trading.
Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 finished 0.16% lower as the yen remained elevated against the U.S. dollar and tech stocks slipped ahead of the Nvidia earnings update.
