U.S. stock futures were little changed Tuesday night after the S&P 500 posted a marginal gain, marking its third positive session in a row.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both climbed about 0.1%.
GameStop jumped 7% in Tuesday’s extended trading hours after announcing that its board unanimously approved a plan to invest corporate cash into bitcoin, following in the footsteps of a move by MicroStrategy.
Earlier on Tuesday, the S&P 500 posted a slim gain, rising 0.16%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 4.18 points, or 0.01%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.46%. It was the third straight positive session for the three major averages.
Stocks closed slightly higher despite the release of consumer confidence data on Tuesday showing that U.S. consumers’ near-term outlook on income, business and job prospects dropped to their lowest reading in 12 years. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that a recession is on the horizon, according to Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group.
“The soft data looks terrible. If you look at the soft data, you’d say we’re in a recession right now — especially after today’s consumer confidence report — but it’s a matter of actions speaking louder than words. When you look at the hard data, we’re not seeing nearly the collapse that we’re seeing in the soft data,” he said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday.
“Over the last week, you’ve seen housing starts, building permits, industrial production, capacity utilization, new home sales today were all either in line with or better than expected,” Hickey added. “So that suggests that, at this point, we haven’t seen that transfer from not feeling good to actually not being good.”
Chewy, Dollar Tree, Cintas and Paychex will report earnings on Wednesday. Traders will also watch out for February’s preliminary durable goods orders.
7 out of 11 sectors end Tuesday higher
Seven of the 11 GICS sectors ended Tuesday’s session positive for the day.
The communication services sector rose 1.43%, and was the session’s biggest gainer. On the other hand, utilities stocks — down 1.61% — were the session’s laggard.
The consumer discretionary, technology and materials sectors all closed more than 10% off their 52-week highs.
— Christopher Hayes, Lisa Kailai Han
GameStop shares pop 6% in extended trading
Shares of meme stock darling GameStop gained 6% Tuesday afternoon, after the company’s board announced it had unanimously approved a plan to invest corporate cash in bitcoin.
GameStop’s decision echoes a similar move made by MicroStrategy.
As of Feb. 1, GameStop had nearly $4.8 billion in cash holdings. The firm has yet to announce how much bitcoin it intends to purchase.
The video game retailer also reported fourth-quarter net income of $131.3 million. This was higher than the $63.1 million figure from the year-ago period.
— Yun Li, Lisa Kailai Han
Stock futures are marginally higher Tuesday evening
Stock futures edged fractionally higher on Tuesday.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both gained 0.1%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 21 points, or less than 0.1%.
— Lisa Kailai Han