US LNG exports surge but will buyers in China turn up?
(Corrects typographical error in first paragraph)
* J&J COVID-19 vaccine 72% effective in U.S., 66% globally
* GameStop plays surge as brokerages ease restrictions
* Popular mega-cap long positions take a hit
* Eli Lilly gains as Q4 profit rises 41.5%
* Futures down: Dow 0.94%, S&P 0.81%, Nasdaq 0.88%
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set to open lower
on Friday after COVID-19 vaccine data from Johnson & Johnson
hurt sentiment and added to worries over a growing standoff
between hedge funds and retail investors.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N fell 3.9% in premarket
trading after the drugmaker said its single-dose vaccine was 72%
effective in preventing COVID-19 in the United States, with a
lower rate of 66% observed globally. Those results compare to the high bar set by two authorized
vaccines from Pfizer Inc PFE.N /BioNTech SE BNTX.O and
Moderna Inc MRNA.O , which were around 95% effective in
preventing symptomatic illness in pivotal trials when given in
two doses.
"While it's good to have another entrant, the question is
the efficacy. The concern is if it's a lot less effective, then
investor and consumer confidence will be substantially lower,"
said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
The S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC indexes were set
for their worst weekly performance in two weeks, while the
blue-chip Dow .DJI tracked its biggest weekly fall since the
end of October.
Worries of a short squeeze grew after an army of retail
investors returned to trade shares in companies including
GameStop Corp GME.N , AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC.N
and BlackBerry Ltd BB.N . Shares of the companies surged after Robinhood and
Interactive Brokers said they planned to ease restrictions after
imposing buying halts a day earlier. Investor favorites including Apple Inc AAPL.O were sold
off by hedge funds recently to cover billions of dollars in
losses.
Shares in Apple, Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Facebook Inc FB.O , Netflix Inc NFLX.O , Tesla Inc
TSLA.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O declined between 0.5% and
1.2%.
"The markets were vulnerable to a decline because of how far
they had advanced as compared with either moving averages, and
this Reddit activity was the catalyst that sort of triggered the
sell off," Stovall said.
Better-than-expected quarterly earnings reports and hopes of
a speedy economic recovery under the Biden Administration, on
the back of massive fiscal and monetary stimulus program have
helped Wall Street's main indexes trade at record levels
recently.
However, concerns over stretched valuations, rising
coronavirus cases and new variants of the virus have kept
investors on edge about a pullback and an increase in volatility
in the near-term.
The first known U.S. cases of the South African COVID-19
variant, found to be partly resistant to current vaccines and
antibody treatments, was detected in two South Carolina patients
on Thursday. At 8:29 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 288 points,
or 0.94%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 30.75 points, or
0.81%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 116 points, or
0.88%.
Declines in stock index futures were tempered on hopes of
more stimulus as data showed U.S. consumer spending fell for a
second straight month in December. Eli Lilly and Co LLY.N jumped 4.2% after the company
posted a 41.5% rise in fourth-quarter profit, on higher demand
for its diabetes drugs and a successful launch of its COVID-19
antibody treatment. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Traders return to GameStop plays as brokerages ease restrictions
restricts buying of fractional shares in GameStop,
other hot stocks to stocks continues amid retail frenzy - BofA
broker notes to memes: how the stock market went viral
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