After concerns over intensifying Russian sanctions overran strong earnings reports yesterday, US markets, particularly the tech-heavy Nasdaq are looking stronger on the open after Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) jumped 30% afterhours by smashing user growth expectations ahead of key economic reports.
Futures suggest the Dow will open 27 points higher at 16,939 with the S&P expected to open 3 points higher at 1,972 and the Nasdaq 10 points higher at 3,969.
Naysayers were out in force ahead of Twitter’s earnings report yesterday arguing the social network can never outdo the user growth of Facebook after the stock had lost more than half its value from the high last year. Twitter bears were sent reeling after the company grew its user base by 16m, the biggest amount since the first quarter of 2013 sending the stock higher by 30% afterhours.
There is some caution however that the user growth could have been a one-off helped by the World Cup. If it was just the World Cup that caused the growth; next quarter could be setup for a big disappointment.
This analysis may be a little harsh in the long term though, Twitter comes into its own for spreading news and opinion on world events and there will always be world events, it just happens that the World Cup is one of the bigger ones.
Today’s GDP release and FOMC meeting will be all important for the current bull market in stocks. The Fed is moving towards tightening monetary policy but economic growth fell off a cliff in the first quarter.
If the Fed indicates its closer to tightening monetary policy but the economy is not growing, the profits currently being enjoyed by US corporations are unlikely to last and stocks will start to discount lost future earnings by turning lower.
Today will also see earnings from Sprint, Kraft, Lorillard, Shutterfly and Wholefoods.
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