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Briefing.com Summary:
*The U.S. and Iran could be on the verge of signing a memorandum of understanding for a peace deal.
*SpaceX is set to start trading today, with everyone wondering just how high it will go.
*Oil prices are down nicely on the speculation about a U.S.-Iran peace deal.
We're not sure what the stock market is more excited about today—peace between the U.S. and Iran or a capitalist piece of space courtesy of the SpaceX (SPCX) IPO.
Both are providing some early excitement for the equity futures market, which is building on yesterday's excitement that revolved around President Trump pivoting from planning to hit Iran "very hard" to calling off that strike because a memorandum of understanding for peace with Iran is on the verge of being signed.
The latter fueled a robust rebound rally on Thursday that gave way to robust rebounds in foreign markets overnight and a further decline in oil prices. WTI crude futures are down $2.31, or 2.6%, to $85.40/bbl, while Brent crude futures are down $2.16, or 2.4%, to $88.22/bbl.
Currently, the S&P 500 futures are up 17 points and are trading 0.3% above fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are up nine points and are trading 0.1% above fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 232 points and are trading 0.5% above fair value.
Those indications aren't rocket booster-like, but the engines are revving. Everyone will just have to wait and see if there will be a nice liftoff today or if the indices succumb to rocket booster failure. That is where SpaceX comes in.
The company priced 555,555,555 shares at $135.00 per share last night, raising $75 billion, as expected, at a $1.77 trillion valuation. The stock is expected to launch from that IPO price, but just how high it goes is the great unknown along with how the performance of the stock might direct things for the broader market.
It will be an exciting day regardless, maybe not so much for Adobe (ADBE), which is languishing on the news of its CFO departing to be CFO at Marvell Technology (MRVL), but for market watchers in general, who will be pseudo stargazers today.
To that end, necks will be craned to see how high SPCX flies. We just hope they don't get wrenched by whipsaw action, like they might have with the on-again, off-again reports of a peace deal with Iran.
In the market's mind, though, pre-flight checks are looking good for now. Accordingly, the stock market is still a go for launch at 9:30 a.m. ET.
