U.S. stock futures dropped on concerns over the coming winter COVID wave and Evergrande’s default.
Authorities in the UK imposed stricter rules ahead of the Christmas holidays, as cases continue to surge. The move followed similar decisions in much of the rest of Europe.
In China, Fitch Ratings officially declared that the struggling developer Evergrande defaulted on a part of its domestic debts. This could eventually lead to a $19 billion default on its international debt.
| Level | Chg. | Chg. % | |
| DOW Futures | 35,654.00 | -105 | -0.29% |
| S&P 500 Futures | 4,685.75 | -14.25 | -0.30% |
| Nasdaq Futures | 16,329.50 | -59 | -0.36% |
U.S. Dollar and Treasuries
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose one basis point. The dollar strengthened against a basket of major currencies.
| Price | Chg. | Chg. % | |
| U.S. Dollar Index (DXY): | 96.13 | +0.24 | +0.25% |
| Yield | Change | Previous close | |
| U.S. 1 Year Treasury Bill | 0.285% | -0.005 | 0.290% |
| U.S. 5 Year Treasury Note | 1.247% | -0.024 | 1.271% |
| U.S. 10 Year Treasury Note | 1.492% | 0.013 | 1.479% |
Stocks To Watch
Videogame retailer-turned meme stock GameStop fell in premarket trading after reporting a quarterly loss of $105.4 million. That translates into a loss of $1.39 a share in the third quarter. The results are worrying as the company only lost 29 cents per share in Q3 of 2020.
Shares of Novavax were up on news that the European Medicines Agency could approve the company’s COVID vaccine.
Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC company merging with Trump’s media firm, fell 6% premarket. The SEC is investigating the merger. However, the drop could also be due to profit taking, as the stock soared the day prior. On Wednesday, DWAC soared 28.10% on retail investor interest.
Renewed pandemic fears hit travel stocks. For instance, Southwest Airlines dropped 1.7% in premarket trading. Other airline stocks were in the red as well.
| Symbol | Company Name | Price | Chg. % | Volume |
| GME | GameStop Corp. | $165.50 | Â Â Â Â -4.69% | 23.3K |
| NVAX | Novavax Inc. | $189.00 | 3.99% | 45.8K |
| DWAC | Digital World Acquisition Corp. | $65.42 | -3.03% | 173.92K |
| LUV | Southwest Airlines Co. | $44.40 | -1.92% | 43.32K |
Commodities To Watch
Oil prices dropped as pandemic concerns threatened demand prospects. Gold dropped in premarket trading.Â
| Resource | Price | Chg. % |
| WTI Crude Oil | $71.65 | -0.98% |
| Brent Crude Oil | $75.03 | -1.04% |
| Natural Gas | $3.79 | -0.79% |
| Gold | $1,777.50 | -0.45% |
| Silver | $22.22 | -0.97% |
| Copper | $4.34 | -1.31% |
Crypto
The global crypto market cap is $2.33T, a 1.35% increase over the last day. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 39.87%, a decrease of 0.31% over the same period.
| Currency | Symbol | Price | Chg. % | Market Cap. |
| Bitcoin | BTC | $49,387.93 | +0.58% | 933.24b |
| Etherium | ETH | $4,506.25 | +5.67% | 533.05b |
| Binance coin | BNB | $592.27 | +2.90% | 89.04b |
| Solana | SOL | $188.15 | +0.65% | 57.83b |
| Cardano | ADA | $ 1.366 | -0.09% | 42.49b |
