Stock futures rise as Wall Street focuses on debt ceiling negotiations: Live updates

Traders at JPMorgan expect the market to remain in a tight trading range as lawmakers try to reach a deal on the U.S. debt ceiling.

“While McCarthy said a deal is possible by end of this week, the timeline may be by the end of next week ahead of the Memorial Day,” JPMorgan traders wrote. “With that in mind, Equities may trade in a tight range until an outcome is observed with the biggest downside risk coming if we enter Memorial Day weekend without a solution, given the early June x-date.”

“Thinking about actionable trades, many clients continue to see MegaCap Tech as the best area to be long, followed by Defensives. That said, several conversations have revealed a desire to be neutral into x-date given the potential for markets to swing in either direction upon seeing an outcome,” they added.

— Michael Bloom, Fred Imbert

Target traded more than 2% lower in the premarket after the retailer reported total revenue of $25.32 billion for the first quarter, which represented year-over-year growth of just 1%. To be sure, that revenue figure, along with the company’s earnings per share, exceeded analyst expectations.

— Melissa Repko, Fred Imbert

European markets opened lower Wednesday as investors keep an eye on debt ceiling negotiations stateside.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.2% at the start of the session, with most sectors and major bourses trading in negative territory. Financial services made the biggest losses, down 1.3%, followed by autos, which dropped 0.9%. Health care modestly bucked the trend with a 0.1% uptick.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

The offshore Chinese yuan weakened further to 7.0061 against the greenback, breaching the 7-mark for the first time in 2023 on Wednesday morning.

The onshore yuan also weakened 0.18% to 6.9913 against the U.S. dollar as investors further digested China’s economic data that missed estimates on Tuesday.

Home prices in China fell, with prices 0.2% lower year-on-year, compared to a 0.8% decline seen in the previous month, according to Reuters’ calculations.

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports in April grew 2.7% compared to the month before, a surprise upside compared to the 3% contraction that economists polled by Reuters were expecting.

On a year-on-year basis however, non-oil domestic exports fell 9.8%, more than the economists’ expectations of 9.4%.

This was mainly due to a decline in exports to China, Taiwan and Malaysia, although exports to the U.S., the European Union and South Korea rose.

Singapore’s total trade fell to SG$100.3 billion in April, a 18.8% year-on-year drop and extending the 8.6% decrease in March.

Compared to April 2022, total exports declined by 18.1% and total imports contracted by 19.5%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Western Alliance jumped about 7% in extended trading after the bank said that its deposit growth for the current quarter surpassed $2 billion as of May 12.

The new data was in an investor update filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

That’s an increase from the $1.8 billion in deposit growth for the quarter through May 9.

Western Alliance shares have been on a recent upswing, up 17% over the past week – and posting a gain of 15% since this week has begun. The stock is still down nearly 47% for the year, however.

–Darla Mercado, Ethan Kraft

Tech stock Keysight advanced more than 7% after the bell on the back of a strong quarterly earnings report and guidance for the current quarter.

In its fiscal second quarter, the company reported $2.12 in earnings per share without items and $1.39 billion in revenue. By comparison, analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.96 per share and revenue to come in slightly lower at $1.38 billion.

For the current quarter, the company said to expected between $2 and $2.06 in earnings per share for the current quarter, while analysts forecasted $1.96. Keysight guided revenue for the quarter to come in between $1.37 billion and $1.39 billion, a range that contains Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $1.38 billion.

— Alex Harring

The Dow ended the trading session below a key threshold on Tuesday.

The 30-stock index fell 336.46 points, or 1.01%, to close at 33,012.14. It closed below its 50-day moving average level of 33,143.18, but it has slipped below that threshold on an intraday basis.

The 50-day moving average is a short-term technical indicator of where an asset or an index is trading. A close below that level may signal a potential change toward the downside.

–Darla Mercado, Gina Francolla

Medical software stock Doximity slid more than 8% in extended trading after issuing weak guidance for the current quarter.

The company said to expect between $106.5 million and $107.5 million in revenue and between $39 million and $40 million in adjusted EBITDA for the first fiscal quarter. Both of those estimates were below consensus expectations, with analysts polled by FactSet anticipating revenue at $11.8 million and adjusted EBITDA at $45.4 million.

That overshadowed results from the fourth fiscal quarter. The company reported 20 cents in earnings per share excluding items, above the 17 cents expected by analysts. Revenue also beat expectations at $111 million compared with a $110.1 million forecast. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $48.9 million, ahead of the $45.7 consensus estimate.

For the full fiscal year, the company said to expect between $500 million and $506 million in revenue, a range that contains the Wall Street estimate of $501.8 million. The company expects adjusted EBITDA for the year to come in between $216 million and $222 million, while analysts anticipate $215.7 million.

— Alex Harring

Stock futures were up modestly shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all up around 0.1%.

— Alex Harring