Stocks are mostly weaker near midday, although the Nasdaq is seeing a slight advance, after the rapid pullback on Wall Street seen late yesterday. That decline was driven by news President Trump will hold a press conference today, which is still upcoming, during which he is expected to discuss the U.S. reaction to China's bid to strengthen its hold over Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Trump's feud with Twitter (TWTR) is also escalating after the company took action on another one of his tweets regarding the protests and rioting that have occurred in Minnesota.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In U.S. data, the advance goods trade deficit widened to $69.7B in April from a revised estimate of $65.0B for March. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index slipped to 72.3 in the final May estimate from 73.7 in the preliminary May report. However, it's still a little better than the 8-year low of 71.8 from April. The personal income report sharply beat estimates, with a 10.5% April surge for income that reflected a much bigger boost from the CARES Act than analysts projected alongside a 13.6% drop in consumption that was a smaller decline than assumed. The Chicago PMI dropped further in May, sliding 3.1 points to 32.3.
TOP NEWS: Social media companies, led by Twitter, have been a target for President Donald Trump today after he signed an executive order on Thursday that seeks to limit the broad legal protection that federal law currently provides to online platforms. Trump signed an executive order that seeks to modify a law protecting social media companies after Twitter tagged Trumps tweets for fact checking. After the president issued the executive order, Twitter went after another one of Trump's tweets, saying that a recent tweet of his violated the company's glorification of violence policy. Following the move, the president tweeted that Twitter was "doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party," alleging that the company has "targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!" Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said he views Trump's order as presenting "mostly headline risks" for Facebook (FB) and Twitter and thinks any major pullback in the shares would likely present good buying opportunities. Sebastian said he finds it hard to see how the dispute over content moderation would meaningfully impact the vast majority of social media usage and he would not anticipate any material impact on revenues.
Shares of Salesforce (CRM) are down 4.5% at midday following the company's Q1 results. Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss said Salesforce's positive tone on April and May pipeline builds and improving long-term secular positioning "stood in sharp contrast" to the company's weak FY21 guidance. Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz added that while guidance was lowered more than had been expected, management's targets are conservative, and will likely be exceeded due in part to an accelerating demand for digital transformation.
Additionally, shares of Costco (COST) are down 1% this morning after the company reported sales and earnings last night that missed consensus forecasts.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Adaptimmune (ADAP), which has nearly doubled after the company presented updated clinical trial data at the American Society for Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Also higher were Glu Mobile (GLUU) and Williams-Sonoma (WSM), which gained a respective 11% and 14% after reporting quarterly results or guidance.
Among the notable losers was Arvinas (ARVN), which fell 30% after it reported updated dose escalation data from its trial of ARV-110. Also lower were Canopy Growth (CGC) and Nordstrom (JWN), which dropped 20% and 10%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 181.97, or 0.72%, to 25,218.67, the Nasdaq was up 19.30, or 0.21%, to 9,388.29, and the S&P 500 was down 11.37, or 0.38%, to 3,018.36.
-0.82 (-2.59%)
Ticker changed to META
-0.2 (-0.09%)
Costco
-4.72 (-1.52%)
Salesforce
-8.71 (-4.80%)
Adaptimmune
+4.66 (+95.88%)
Glu Mobile
+1.005 (+11.58%)
Williams-Sonoma
+10.505 (+14.36%)
Arvinas
-13.09 (-29.23%)
Canopy Growth
-4.53 (-20.85%)
Nordstrom
-1.82 (-10.06%)