U.S. futures rise as traders mull Powell's pivot
U.S. equity futures rose and Asian stocks looked set for a muted start Wednesday as traders weighed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments that officials should consider a faster removal of stimulus.
Australian shares slipped, while contracts for Japan and Hong Kong pointed to a cautious open. The $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US)$ slumped almost 2% overnight and measures of equity volatility jumped on the prospect of tightening monetary policy. The gap between yields on 5-year and 30-year U.S. Treasuries shrunk to the least since March last year.
Powell says Fed will discuss speeding up bond-buying taper at December meeting
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he expects policymakers in December to discuss accelerating the timetable for the tapering of monthly bond purchases. Speaking before a Senate panel, he said tapering could wrap up "a few months sooner" than anticipated. That would open the door to interest rate hikes thereafter.
Powell also said "it's probably a good time to retire" the word "transitory" to describe inflation.
U.S. may tighten travel rules to fight Omicron, CDC head says
The agency is looking measures such as narrowing the testing window for travelers into the country and adding quarantine requirements in certain cases, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday on a call with reporters. It's also expanding surveillance programs at four major airports to test for Covid from specific international arrivals.
VIX options trader reaps win in 19 hours as stocks resume swoon
A sizable bet that equity market volatility would worsen appears to have turned a tidy profit in less than a day.
About $13 million was spent last night on 65,000 December call contracts tied to the Cboe Volatility Index, with a strike price at 26. Similar volume erupted in the series this morning as the VIX jumped above 27, sending the options to as high as $3.55 after trading as low as $1.75 in the prior session.
Apple was the only tech stock that went up on Tuesday
$Apple(AAPL.US)$ stock closed up 3.1% on Tuesday as stocks tumbled on concerns of the new omicron Covid variant, showing investors see the company as a safe haven during market uncertainty. Needham analyst Laura Martin said investors turned to Apple on Tuesday because the company has prodigious cash flow, allowing it to endure any slowdowns in the economy and take advantage of falling prices.
Eco-friendly shoemaker Allbirds posts wider loss despite 33% gain in quarterly sales; shares fall
$Allbirds(BIRD.US)$ reported third-quarter revenue growth 33% from last year, while its losses widened. Co-founder and CEO Joey Zwillinger said the company saw notable strength in its stores in the United States, and shoppers responded well to new product launches. Shares fell around 6% in extended trading on the report
The company ended the quarter with 31 retail locations, including those outside the U.S.
It's not the first time Elon Musk's worried about the demise of SpaceX — he once thought it would be worth '$0'
$Tesla(TSLA.US)$ and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a letter to his employees the day after Thanksgiving, in which he said the rocket company could be at "genuine risk of bankruptcy," unless it can speed up production of the Raptor engines that power its Starship rockets.
It's not SpaceX's first brush with serious financial risk: Musk has often spoken about how risky it was to launch the company in 2002, and how it nearly failed just a few years later. It's always possible that Musk is using the threat of bankruptcy as a motivational tactic for his employees. But the Raptor engines are essential to SpaceX's financial future — because the company will need its Starship rockets to launch its next genneratioon of Starlink satellites into orbit.
Facebook's executive in charge of cryptocurrency is leaving the company
David Marcus, the head of $Meta Platforms(FB.US)$ parent company Meta's cryptocurrency efforts, announced on Tuesday he will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Marcus's departure comes after the company tried and failed to launch a cryptocurrency that could be used by online users to send money to anyone in the world via Facebook products.
Source: Bloomberg, CNBC