Wall Street has been on the rise this week, but it could have a fall on Friday.
Here are 4 tips for today's trading. This will help you decide where you should invest and what to look for:
Wall Street has been on the rise this week, but it could have a fall on Friday.
Here are 4 tips for today's trading. This will help you decide where you should invest and what to look for:
1. Stocks and oil slump
1. Stocks and oil slump
U.S. stock futures are slipping and European markets are declining by about 0.5%.
Traders are selling as oil prices come under pressure. U.S. crude futures are down about 1.7% at $45.50 a barrel.
Oil prices and stocks have been closely correlated over the last year or so. And oil is moving based on expectations about what may happen at an OPEC meeting in Algeria next week. Oil producers are talking again about whether to freeze production.
Asian markets closed out the week with mixed results - Chinese and Japanese markets slipped, while the main Australian index surged by 1%.
2. More from the Fed
2. More from the Fed
A number of Federal Reserve members are expected to speak today at public events, and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is holding an open Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) forum where people are being encouraged to #AskNeel questions.
Patrick Harker, Dennis Lockhart, and Loretta Mester are all speaking at a conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
"With the Federal Reserve so riven by disagreements [over interest rate hikes], the potential for entertaining debate has increased. However, the potential for market confusion also increases," noted Paul Donovan, global chief economist at UBS Wealth Management.
On Wednesday, the Fed opted to keep interest rates steady, but there was dissent in the ranks, with three Fed members out of 12 voting for a hike.
3. Stocks to follow
3. Stocks to follow
Shares in Yahoo and Facebook are both declining by about 2% premarket.
Investors are unimpressed after Yahoo announced a massive data breach Thursday that affects at least 500 million accounts.
And Facebook stock is slumping after the Wall Street Journal reported that the social media company "vastly overestimated average viewing time for video ads on its platform for two years."
Facebook said in a statement that there was an error with a video metric calculation, but it has since been fixed. "It did not impact billing, and we have notified our partners ... This metric is one of many our partners use to assess their video campaigns."
Finish Line (FINL) is reporting quarterly results ahead of the open.
Marriott International (MAR) announced its multi-billion-dollar purchase of Starwood Hotels is now a done deal. The company beat out rival Chinese firm Anbang to make the acquisition.
Amazon closed on Thursday with gains of 1.89% at $804.70, a record closing high that pushed its market capitalization to more $380 billion, more than double its worth in April 2015 when the stock pushed past $400 per share.
Amazon is the fourth largest U.S. company by market cap, following Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft.
4. Weekly market recap
4. Weekly market recap
The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq had a quiet day on Monday but then posted significant rallies from Tuesday, leading the Nasdaq to hit an all-time high yesterday. The Dow and S&P hit record highs just over a month ago.