Stock futures point lower, extending a drop fueled by a sharp selloff in tech shares; Palantir reports earnings; Tesla slumps on a report it has halted a land purchase in Shanghai; ARK slashes its Apple holdings.
1. -- Stock Futures Point to Further Losses for Wall Street
Stock futures pointed lower Tuesday, extending a drop fueled by a sharp selloff in technology shares.
Contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 118 points, S&P 500 futures fell 26 points and Nasdaq futures slumped 161 points.
Stocks finished lower Monday and the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 2.55%on renewed anxiety over the prospects of higher inflation. The Nasdaq sank as prices in commodities such as copper and iron ore surged.
The Federal Reserve has tried to assure Wall Street that any bump higher in inflation would be transitory. The fear among investors is that price pressures will force the central bank to raise interest rates and taper its monthly asset purchases sooner than it has signaled.
Investors will be giving even greater importance to the Consumer Price Index, which will be released Wednesday. CPI data are forecast to show a year-over-year gain of 3.6% in April, though comparisons are skewed by the pandemic in 2020.
Oil prices were lower early Tuesday as Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S. oil-products pipeline, pushed to get back online after a ransomware cyberattack on Friday forced its shutdown.
2.-- Tuesday's Calendar: JOLTS Survey, Palantir and Electronic Arts Earnings
The U.S.economic calendar Tuesday includes the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for April at 6 a.m. ET and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for March at 10 a.m.
Earnings reports are expected Tuesday from Electronic Arts (EA) -Get Report, Palantir (PLTR) -Get Report, Unity Software (U) -Get Report, Kinross Gold (KGC) -Get Report, Fubotv (FUBO) -Get Report and Sundial Growers (SNDL) -Get Report.
3. -- Tesla Drops on Report It Halts Buy of Land in Shanghai
Tesla (TSLA) -Get Report was declining in premarket trading following a Reuters report that said the electric vehicle company halted plans to buy land to expand its Shanghai plant and make it a global export hub because of uncertainty created by tensions between the U.S. and China.
With 25% tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles imposed on top of existing levies under former President Trump still in place, Tesla now intends to limit the proportion of China output in its global production, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Teslaearlier had considered expanding exports of its China-made entry-level Model 3 to more markets, including the U.S., sources told Reuters, a plan that hadn't previously been reported.
The stock fell 3.66% to $606 in premarket trading. Shares declined 6.44% in Monday's tech selloff.
Separately, sales in China fell in April amid increasing criticism of the U.S. EV maker, according to data from China’s Passenger Car Association. Tesla sold 25,845 locally made vehicles in China in April, down from 35,478 units in March.
4. -- Cathie Wood's ARK Sells 30.4% of Its Apple Holdings
Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management sold 30.4% of what it held in Apple (AAPL) -Get Report shares on Monday, according to calculations made by Bloomberg of data from the firm’s daily trading update.
ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) -Get Report, Wood’s only fund that holds stake in Apple, sold 87,560 shares of Apple and now holds 200,387 shares.
Meanwhile, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) -Get Report, Wood's flagship fund, plunged to a six-month low during Monday's tech selloff.
The ARKK ETF declined 5.23% on Monday andhas dropped more than 30% from its February peak.
In premarket trading Monday, ARKK was down 3.25% to $100.60.
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5. -- Wynn Interactive Going Public in SPAC Merger
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) -Get Report shares rose after the casino company said its online gaming division,Wynn Interactive, would go public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, Austerlitz Acquisition Corp. I.
Wynn Resorts also reported an adjusted first-quarter loss of $2.41 a share, wider than analysts' expectations.
Wynn expects the combined Wynn Interactive and Austerlitz to go public on the Nasdaq under the symbol "WBET." Terms of the deal will give the new company $640 million to fund operations.
Austerlitz is a blank-check company created by title-insurance magnate William P. Foley II. Wynn will retain 58% of the business, which has an enterprise value of $3.2 billion.
"Needless to say, Foley is a great partner for Wynn Interactive," said Jim Cramer and theAction Alerts PLUSteam, which holds Wynn in its portfolio.
Wynn Interactive offers casino and sports-betting mobile options in the U.S. and U.K. It currently has market access to 15 states covering some 51% of the U.S. population and expects soon to gain access to additional states, giving it access to 77% of Americans.