Here are five things you must know for Tuesday, Feb. 16:
1. — Stock Futures Rise as Wall Street Extends Gains
Stock futures on Tuesday pointed to an extension of Wall Street’s rally as investors bet that improved vaccine distribution and more fiscal relief from the U.S. government will aid in the economy’s recovery.
Contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 204 points, S&P 500 futures were up 19 points and Nasdaq futures jumped 64 points.
U.S. markets were closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. Stocks kicked the long weekend off right with the three major indexes closing Friday at record highs.
The Dow rose 27 points, or 0.09%, to close at 31,458, the S&P 500 rose 0.47% to finish at 3,934, and the Nasdaq gained 0.5% to close at 14,095.
For the week, the Dow rose 1%, the S&P 500 gained 1.2% and the Nasdaq rose 1.7%.
Global equities were poised to set further all-time highs, rising for a 12th straight session.
“Global equity markets remain on the climb into this week with the multitude of positive factors, including U.S. fiscal stimulus hopes, positive earnings and the vaccine rollout supporting sentiment,” said Jingyi Pan, a senior market strategist at IG Singapore.
Brent crude oil touched the highest level since January 2020 as a cold snap in Texas boosted power and fuel demand.
2. — Bitcoin Sets Record Near $50,000
Bitcoin’s tremendous rally rolled on as the world’s largest cryptocurrency set a record near $50,000.
At last check, bitcoin traded at $48,988, up 1.63%, but had risen as high as $49,913 over the weekend, according to Bloomberg.
The price of the digital token has jumped fivefold over the past year.
It gained momentum last week after Tesla (TSLA) - Get Report said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had purchased $1.5 billion of bitcoin.
The Tesla purchase and CEO Elon Musk’s continued support of bitcoin has provided the token with more mainstream acceptance.
An investment unit of Morgan Stanley (MS) - Get Report is considering whether to bet on bitcoin, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter, while Mastercard (MA) - Get Report said it plans to start supporting select cryptocurrencies directly on its network later this year.
3. — Tuesday’s Calendar: CVS Earnings, Empire State Manufacturing Index
Earnings reports are expected Tuesday from CVS Health (CVS) - Get Report, Occidental Petroleum (OXY) - Get Report and AutoNation (AN) - Get Report. Later in the week, reports will be issued by Walmart (WMT) - Get Report, Applied Materials (AMAT) - Get Report, Analog Devices (ADI) - Get Report, Baidu (BIDU) - Get Report, Shopify (SHOP) - Get Report, Roku (ROKU) - Get Report, Waste Management (WM) - Get Report and Deere (DE) - Get Report.
Top Earnings to Watch This Week: CVS, Walmart and Waste Management
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Read more:Bitcoin, Texas Deep Freeze, Oil Prices, Rare Earths - 5 Things You Must Know Tuesday
