Stock market today: Dow in fresh record close as Powell signals rate cut incoming
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* iShares Silver Trust ETF set for best day since 2008
* Tesla gains as Piper Sandler sets Street-high PT
* Wall Street's fear gauge eases from 3-month high
* Futures up: Dow 0.72%, S&P 0.91%, Nasdaq 1.05%
(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Feb 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set for a
higher open on Monday following a steep sell-off last week, as a
shift in the retail trading frenzy to silver drove up mining
stocks and investors awaited manufacturing data later in the
day.
The iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV.N jumped 9.6% in
premarket trading as silver broke above $30 an ounce for the
first time since 2013 with an army of retail traders storming
into the metal after betting billions of dollars on stocks last
week. Silver miners Hecla Mining Co HL.N , Coeur Mining Inc
CDE.N and Wheaton Precious Metals Corp WPM.N surged between
14% and 32%.
"It's just a relief rally after the sharp decline on
Friday," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan
Capital Securities in New York.
Wall Street's main indexes last week logged their steepest
weekly fall since October, as investors digested efficacy data
from Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine trial results, while a
slugfest between Wall Street hedge funds and retail investors
added to volatility.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX eased on Monday from
three-month highs that were fueled by a surge in shares of
GameStop Corp GME.N , AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC.N and
others that burnt hedge funds who had bet against the companies.
GameStop was down about 1%, while AMC jumped another 25%.
The wild swings in the so-called "meme" stocks dominated
news on Wall Street last week, even as Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and other corporate heavyweights
reported quarterly results. "The sentiment right now is precarious. The market has
already discounted a good earnings season and rebound in
economic growth based on the vaccination," Cardillo said.
Of the 184 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported
earnings, 84.2% have topped analyst expectations, well above the
75.5% beat rate for the past four quarters, according to
Refinitiv data as of Friday.
Focus now turns towards quarterly earnings from Amazon.com
Inc AMZN.O and Google-owner Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O on Tuesday
to wrap up results from the so-called FAANG group.
Meanwhile, market participants also monitored stimulus
talks. Ten moderate Republican U.S. senators urged President Joe
Biden on Sunday to significantly downsize his sweeping $1.9
trillion COVID-19 relief package to win bipartisan support.
At 08:26 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 216 points,
or 0.72% and S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 33.75 points, or
0.91%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 135 points, or 1.05%.
On the data front, ISM's survey at 10 a.m. ET is expected to
show factory activity ticked lower in January after approaching
a near two-and-a-half year high in December.
Electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O gained about 3% as
Piper Sandler raised its price target to the highest among the
brokerages covering the stock.