Dow Jones Today, Futures Rise Ahead Of Spending, Jobs Data; SailPoint Soars, Boeing Gains On 737 Relaunch News

Stock futures angled higher Thursday, preparing to extend Wednesday's rally into the first session of October and of the fourth quarter. Tesla and Amazon moved sharply higher. SailPoint Technology soared on news it would become an S&P MidCap 400 stock. Boeing led both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones today, on news regarding the potential relaunch of its grounded 737 Max jetliners.

Dow Jones futures jumped 0.8%. S&P 500 futures hustled up an early 0.9% advance on the stock market today. Nasdaq 100 futures stretched 1.5% above fair value with software, chip stocks and Tesla (TSLA) laying down the early groove.

Chip stocks in motion included ASML Holding (ASML) and Nvidia (NVDA), up more than 2% each and trading high on the Nasdaq and the IBD 50 list. ASML is below a 402.25 buy point in a 12-week base. Nvidia is climbing out of buy range on a five-day advance following a bounce off support at its 10-day moving average.

Management software leader Workday (WDAY) punched up 3% after Citi upgraded shares to a buy rating, from neutral. Citi lifted its price target to 265, from 218. Workday had triggered a sell signal by erasing gains from an August breakout.

Airline stocks scaled higher, even after American Airlines Group (AAL) informed employees it would furlough 19,000 workers starting Thursday. Federal stimulus negotiations allowed the Payroll Support Program to expire on Wednesday. So United Airlines Holdings (UAL) made a similar move, affecting 13,000 employees, but no pilots. United and American rose almost 2% each in early action.

Meanwhile, discount carrier JetBlue Airways (JBLU) jumped 3% after the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to extend a $1.14 billion line of credit through March.

Gear up for Thursday's market action by reading IBD's Investing Action Plan.

SailPoint, Tesla, Amazon Climb

IBD Leaderboard stock SailPoint Technology (SAIL) tacked 8.9% higher following the late-Wednesday announcement that the stock would be added to the Standard & Poor's MidCap 400 on Oct. 5. Morgan Stanley also upgraded the stock to overweight, from equal weight, with a price target set at 50. SailPoint's premarket action suggested the stock would be extended at the open, after a rebound from its 10-week moving average.

Tesla (TSLA) jumped 2.5%, leading the Nasdaq 100. Piedmont Lithium (PLL), the miner with which Tesla announced a five-year lithium supply deal on Monday, vaulted 9% higher after Roth Capital more than doubled its price target to 41, from 20. Piedmont shares are up 113% for the week, closing Wednesday's session at 23.42.

Nvidia, Tesla and SailPoint are all IBD Leaderboard listings.

Amazon.com (AMZN) led the big FANG stocks, rising 1.5% after Pivotal Research boosted its price target on the stock to 4,500, from 3,925. The note said analysts have been incorrectly valuing the contribution of advertising margins, which represent "massive upside" to estimates through 2024. Amazon stock is working to retake its 50-day moving average, after a breakout failed in September. 

Dow Jones Today: Boeing Moves Closer To 737 Relaunch

Boeing (BA) ran well ahead on the Dow Jones today, surging 2.8% after positive comments regarding the 737 Max from Steve Dickson, the administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration. Dickson piloted a two-hour test flight of a 737, which have had flight systems significantly revamped since being grounded in March 2019.

Reuters quoted Dickson saying, "I like what I saw on the flight this morning." He also said "We still have some work to do yet," but that "there is very little daylight between the authorities on this project."

Boeing stock has been the worst performing issue on the Dow so far this year, posting a 49% year-to-date decline through Wednesday.

The Dow's biggest mover this year, Apple (AAPL), advanced 1.5% ahead of the open. Apple stock is attempting to climb the right side of a possible base pattern. Shares have gained 57.8% through Wednesday's close.

Deal Talk: American Equity, AMAG Pharma

Insurer American Equity Investment Life Holding (AEL) soared 52% higher after the Wall Street Journal reported that Athene Holding (ATH) and MassMutual made a takeover bid at 36 per share last month. The deal valued the company at around $3 billion.

AMAG Pharmaceuticals (AMAG) rocketed 43% in premarket trade. Bloomberg reported that private equity outfit Apollo Global Management was in advanced negotiations to acquire the Waltham, Mass.-based biotech. Bloomberg said a deal could be announced within days.

Economic News: Jobless Claims Ease, Spending Slows

The week's onslaught of month-end economic reports continues Thursday, as the market ramps up to the Labor Department's monthly payrolls report, due early Friday.

Another round of weekly Labor Department unemployment data showed 837,000 Americans filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ended Sept. 26. That was a notch down from the prior week's 870,000 claims, and below economists projections for 850,000 applications.

Continuing claims dipped to 11.767 million, down from 12.474 million, undercutting projections for 12.2 million to remain on the unemployment rolls.

Personal spending increased 1% in August, the Commerce Department, reported — down from July's 1.9% gain and above expectations for a 0.8% rise. Incomes fell 2.7%, vs. a 0.4% increase in July, slightly more than the 2.5% decline expected by economists.

Markit and the Institute for Supply Management will release September manufacturing purchasing managers indexes at 9:45 a.m. ET and 10:00 a.m. ET, respectively. August construction spending data from the Commerce Department is also due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Global Markets: Tokyo Blacks Out, India Rallies

An unusual day on international markets left a majority of the major benchmarks on positive ground. China's markets posted a mixed finish Thursday with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 0.8%. That left it with a 6.8% loss for September.

Trading was halted entirely in Tokyo, as the world's third-largest stock exchange blacked out due to a technical glitch and backup systems failed to operate. Officials had so far found no evidence of a hack, and said the systems would return to normal operations on Friday.

India's Sensex stood out with a 1.7% rally, after the country eased some restrictions following some success in limiting the spread of new coronavirus cases. In Europe, near midday, the CAC-40 in Paris traded up 0.8% and London's FTSE 100 rallied 0.9%, while Frankfurt's DAX held back with a 0.2% gain.

Coronavirus Update: A Month Of Progress

While many individual states continue to battle spiking rates of coronavirus cases and deaths, the overall picture for September has been quite positive.

The cumulative case count of individuals infected since the beginning of the outbreak rose 19% in September, to just below 7.5 million. It slowed sharply from a 35% increase in August and a 70% surge in July. Another 22,845 persons suffered virus-related deaths during the month. But the rate of deaths slowed, up 11.6% in September, vs. a 21.7% rise in August and a 19.3% increase for July.

Another positive is that testing increased sharply during September. The 10-day average for tests administered per day rose 25.8% during the month, to more than 881,000, according to data collected by the COVID Tracking Project. That follows a 5% increase in testing during August, and a 12.5% increase during July.

Active cases, which are the number of cases reported, minus reported recoveries and deaths, continue to trend ever-so-slightly lower. Active cases peaked above 2.56 million on Sept. 1. Worldometer reported active cases of 2.535 million on Wednesday, a 1% decrease for the month. Active cases rose more than 14% in August, after an increase of more than 50% during July.

Stimulus Chatter Continues

Back-and-forth speculation on the possibility of another round of federal coronavirus pandemic stimulus has added to the week's volatility on the stock market. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday morning said he was "hopeful" about talks and mentioned an "overall understanding" with Democrats on a new coronavirus stimulus package.

However, a subsequent "extensive conversation" between Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went nowhere. Later, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats and Republicans remained "far apart" on terms.

Late Wednesday, the House delayed a vote on its $2.2 trillion stimulus bill. There was some progress, as the Senate approved a bill late Wednesday to keep the government open through Dec. 11, sending it on to President Donald Trump.

Dow Jones Today: Stock Market Rally Upshifts

The stock market rally gained momentum, with the Dow industrials leading Wednesday's solid advance. The major indexes are now all back above their 50-day lines with the Nasdaq closing in on short-term highs.

An increasing number of leading stocks are breaking out or setting up. That's a bullish sign for the new market rally, as well as offering investors buying opportunities.

Investors should be switching out of a defensive mindset. But don't go on an all-out offensive either. Make some modest buys, perhaps using early entries or rebounds to begin stakes, with official breakouts offering a chance to fill out positions.

Reprinted from yahoofinance, the copyright all reserved by the original author.

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