Markets Brace for Key Jobs and Consumer Data

U.S. stock futures are relatively flat and off of overnight lows ahead of the Wall Street open after weakness on Monday. Tech once again led to the downside with Amazon (AMZN), Broadcom (AVGO) and Oracle (ORCL) extending their recent weakness. Investor focus today will be on economic data, including the November jobs report.

The consensus for payrolls calls for a gain of about 40K for November with the jobless rate ticking up to 4.5%. October’s delayed retail sales report is also due this morning.

Telsa (TSLA) offset some of yesterday’s weakness by jumping 3.6% on Monday to settle at its highest level in a year. Tesla execs said over the weekend that the electric vehicle maker is testing its driverless cars on Austin public roads with no people on board. Also on the corporate front, Ford Motor said late Monday that it expects to record about $19.5 billion in special items related to a restructuring of its business priorities and a pullback in its all-electric vehicle investments.

Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)

• Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are down 1.5% near $56 a barrel and hit 5-month lows, as prospects for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal appeared to strengthen, raising expectations of a potential easing of sanctions. China’s factory output growth slowed to a 15-month low, official data showed on Monday.
• Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are down 0.4% near $4320, as investors turned cautious ahead of key U.S. jobs and inflation data, which could provide fresh cues for Federal Reserve policy expectations heading into the new year.
• Bitcoin (/BTC) – The Crypto Future is up over 1.5% near 87,400 in premarket trading.
• VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index rose 4.8% on Monday and settled at 16.50 as stocks were down slightly.
• U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down 0.2% to 98.12

Biggest Premarket Movers (as of 7 AM ET)

1. Accenture (ACN): +1.76%
2. PayPal (PYPL): +1.50%
3. Intel (INTC): +1.07%
4. Eli Lilly (LLY): +0.68%
5. ServiceNow (NOW): +0.63%

1. Lockheed Martin (LMT): -1.12%
2. Palantir Technologies (PLTR): -3.00%
3. Tesla (TSLA): -0.57%
4. Exxon Mobil (XOM): -0.55%
5. ConocoPhillips (COP): -0.46%

Economic Data

• 8:30 AM ET: Jobs Report (NOV), Housing Starts/Permits, Retail Sales (OCT)
• 9:45 AM ET: PMI Composite – Flash
• 10:00 AM ET: Business Inventories
• 10:30 AM ET: Fed’s Williams Speaks

Notable Earnings

• Premarket: DLTH
• Postmarket: LEN, WOR
• Premarket Tomorrow: ABM, GIS, JBL, SPIR, TTC
• Postmarket Tomorrow: MU, MLKN, WS

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Jefferies upgrades Okta (OKTA) to Buy from Hold
• Guggenheim upgrades ServiceNow (Now) to Neutral from Sell
• Daiwa upgrades Eli Lilly (LLY) to Buy from Neutral
• Citizens downgrades StubHub (STUB) to Market Perform from Outperform
• Morgan Stanley downgrades Lockheed Martin (LMT) to Equal Weight from Overweight
• Morgan Stanley downgrades Southern Company (SO) to Underweight from Equal Weight

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