Market Snapshot: Dow futures up 170 points as Trump changes course to call for piecemeal fiscal stimulus measures

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, +0.67% rose 173 points, or 0.6%, to 27,873, while S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.65% were up 19.05 points, or 0.6%, at 3,372.25. Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, +0.63% gained 58.25 points, or 0.5%, at 11,332.

The Dow DJIA, -1.33% on Tuesday reversed a gain of more than 200 points to end the day with a loss of 375.88 points, or 1.3%, at 27,772.76, after Trump, in an afternoon tweet, said he had told negotiators to halt stimulus talks with Democrats until after the election.

The S&P 500 SPX, -1.39% fell 47.66 points, or 1.4%, to finish at 3,360.97, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.57% closed at 11,154.60, down 177.88 points, or 1.6%.

What’s driving the market?

On Tuesday in a tweet a little more than an hour ahead of Tuesday’s market close, Trump in a tweet accused congressional Democrats of negotiating in bad faith and announced that he had pulled the plug on stimulus talks until after the election. He added that after winning the election he would push through a “major Stimulus Bill.”

A few hours later however, in another flurry of tweets Trump said that he would immediately sign individual stimulus measures, if sent to him, including a round of $1,200 individual stimulus checks and a package of $25 billion in airline payroll support and $135 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses which he said could be paid for out of unused funds from the Cares Act.

Trump’s two hour late evening tweet spree lifted equity futures, but analysts said a path to a another round of fiscal stimulus still appeared unclear.

“Although markets responded positively to his comments, the chance of any actual fiscal stimulus appears to be nil at this point as both time and political will are absent.,” said Boris Schlossberg, managing director at BK Asset Management, in a note.

“The market’s reaction may have been naive but the underlying bid in stocks suggests that longer-term investors are convinced that the U.S. economy will get a large stimulus package irrespective of who the president will be in 2021 and that conviction remains highly supportive of stocks,” he said.

Technology stocks will also be in focus after the House Judiciary Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee late Tuesday issued a highly critical report on the business practices of industry juggernauts Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -3.10%, Apple Inc. AAPL, -2.86%, Facebook Inc. FB, -2.26% and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOG, -2.19% GOOGL, -2.14%. The report concluded that big tech firms pose a threat to markets that might require breaking up the most prominent U.S. tech companies and limiting their acquisitions.

In Federal Reserve news, minutes of the Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting are due for publication at 2 p.m. Eastern.

The Atlanta, Boston and Minneapolis Fed banks will hold a joint event on racism and the economy at 2:40 p.m.

New York Fed President John Williams is scheduled to hold a conversation with Henry Kissinger at the Economic Club of New York at 2 p.m. Williams is also scheduled to deliver a speech at a conference on the road ahead for central banks sponsored by the Hoover Institution at 3 p.m.

Which companies are in focus?

• Airline stocks were on the rise in premarket trade, with the industry-tracking U.S. Global Jets ETF JETS, -1.66% up more than 3% after Trump’s call for a stand-alone aid package.
• DraftKings Inc. said it has priced a previously announced offering of 32 million shares at $52 a share. The company is selling 16 million shares, while selling shareholders are selling another 16 million, for a total offering size of $1.664 billion. DraftKings will not receive any of the proceeds from the shares being offered by selling shareholders. Shares DKNG, -6.22% were down 3.7% in premarket trade.