Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Dow should fall with Walmart’s downturn due to disappointing gains
Traders on the New York Stock Exchange
Source: New York Stock Exchange
US stock futures fell on Thursday after Dow Walmart shares fell more than 4.5% in the premarket due to disappointing profits. The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased a loss of 180 points on Wednesday and finished 90 points above for another record close. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed slightly lower for the second consecutive session. The S&P 500 reduced losses minutes after the last Fed meeting signaling an easier monetary policy for a longer time, with the economy far from pre-coronavirus levels.
The Labor Department reported 861,000 new unemployment insurance claims last Thursday, nearly 90,000 more than expected. The initial reading of the previous week’s unemployment insurance claims was revised to more than 55,000 to 848,000. The four-week moving average was 833,250.
2. Walmart loses earnings, beats revenue; CEO to raise salaries
A worker wearing a protective mask arranges shopping carts in front of a Walmart store in Duarte, California, USA, on Thursday, November 12, 2020.
David Swanson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Walmart reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $ 1.39 per share, which fell short of estimates. Revenue grew 7.3% to $ 152.1 billion better than expected. Large retailer’s e-commerce sales in the United States increased by 69% and same store sales in the United States increased by 8.6%. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company will raise workers’ wages in the U.S., raising the average hourly employee to more than $ 15 an hour.
3. What to expect from the GameStop audience with the CEOs of Robinhood, Citadel, Reddit
Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The heads of Robinhood, Reddit, Citadel and Melvin Capital, will be in Washington for the long-awaited GameStop hearing on Thursday, which is scheduled to start at noon ET on the House Financial Services Committee. In prepared comments, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that no significant activity on WallStreetBets in the past month was conducted by foreign bots or agents. Keith Gill, the Reddit and YouTube star known as “Roaring Kitty”, plans to defend his posts on social media that helped spark a craze in GameStop shares.
4. How the Texas power grid failed and what could prevent it from happening again
Pike Electric’s service trucks line up after a snowstorm on February 16, 2021 in Fort Worth, Texas. The winter storm Uri brought historic cold weather and power cuts to Texas as storms hit 26 states with a mix of freezing temperatures and precipitation.
Ron Jenkins | Getty Images
More than 500,000 homes in Texas are still without power on Thursday morning, according to poweroutage.us, after Sunday night’s historic cold and snow that caused the state’s worst blackouts in decades. Millions of people were left in the dark at the height of the crisis, which was caused by a confluence of factors. Authorities are already calling for investigations. Experts said there are a number of measures Texas can take to tackle future problems, including weathering equipment and increasing the amount of surplus supply needed to meet peak energy demand.
5. Life expectancy in the United States falls a year in the pandemic, the worst since World War II
Cemetery worker Keith Yatcko prepares a grave for a burial at the State Veterans Cemetery in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) in Middletown, Connecticut, USA, May 13, 2020.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Life expectancy in the United States fell a surprising year during the first half of 2020, when the pandemic caused the first wave of deaths from coronavirus. Minorities have suffered the biggest impact, with black Americans losing almost three years and Hispanics almost two years, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC on Thursday. “You have to go back to World War II in the 1940s to find a decline like that,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees the CDC’s figures. It is already known that 2020 was the deadliest year in the history of the United States, with deaths reaching 3 million for the first time.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow all developments on Wall Street in real time with the CNBC Pro live markets blog. Get the latest pandemic news with our coronavirus blog.