Stock Market Update

Equity futures point to a lower opening this morning after a volatile previous week for stocks. The major averages incurred sizable losses earlier in the week as software and toher tech stocks sold off sharply, though there was a broad rebound on Friday that lifted the DJIA past the 50,000 mark to a new record high. 

Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOG) faced weakness after issuing massive capital expenditure forecasts for the coming year, prompting return-on-investment concerns across the hyperscaler space that has largely defined a tough start to the year for some of the market's weightiest components. 

Friday's session also saw a stabilization in Bitcoin, which suffered a sharp retreat throughout the week. 

Headlines are relatively quiet this morning as the market gears up for another busy week of earnings that will see over 75 S&P 500 companies report earnings this week. 

There are no economic data releases of note scheduled for today.

In corporate news:

• The Trump administration is preparing new arms sales to Taiwan, which could jeopardize President Trump's planned visit to China in April, according to Financial Times. 
• Anthropic could raise $20 billion as soon as next week, according to Bloomberg. 
• Novo Nordisk (NVO 50.16, +2.53, +5.3%) trades sharply higher in the premarket after Hims & Hers (HIMS 18.38, -4.64, -20.2%) decided to pull its knockoff Wegovy pill after threatened legal action, according to CNBC. 
• Oracle (ORCL 146.65, +3.83, +2.7%) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson, with a target price of $180.

Reviewing overnight developments:

Equity indices in the Asia-Pacific region began the week on a higher note with Japan's Nikkei (+3.9%) soaring to a fresh record after a snap election resulted in supermajority for Prime Minister Takaichi's LDP even before factoring the seats that were won by LDP's coalition partner Ishin. Japan's Nikkei: +3.9%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng: +1.8%, China's Shanghai Composite: +0.1%, India's Sensex: +0.6%, South Korea's Kospi: +4.1%, Australia's ASX All Ordinaries: +2.0%.

In news:

• The win puts the prime minister in position to implement her economic agenda.
• Finance Minister Katayama attempted to assuage investors by saying that there will be no additional bond issuance to fund the prime minister's agenda.
• Elsewhere, Thailand's election produced a three-way deadlock that was largely expected.
• China has resumed some rare earth exports to Japan while Australia placed a 10% tariff on steel imports from China.

In economic data:

• Japan's December Overall Wage Income 2.4% yr/yr (expected 3.0%; last 1.7%). December Current Account surplus JPY2.70 trln (expected surplus of JPY2.95 trln; last surplus of JPY3.14 trln). January Bank Lending 4.5% yr/yr, as expected (last 4.3%) and January Economy Watchers Current Index 47.8 (expected 49.1; last 47.7)

Major European indices trade on a mostly higher note while the U.K.'s FTSE (-0.2%) underperforms with financials contributing to the weakness. STOXX Europe 600: +0.2%, Germany's DAX: +0.4%, U.K.'s FTSE 100: -0.2%, France's CAC 40: UNCH, Italy's FTSE MIB: +1.2%, Spain's IBEX 35: +0.5%.

In news:

• Speculation is on the rise that British Prime Minister Starmer could be ousted after his unimpressive visit to China and growing focus on his knowledge of Lord Mandelson's ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
• A weekend election in Spain resulted in a rightward shift with Prime Minister Sanchez's Socialist party seeing its support fall to 24.5% from 29.5%.
• In Portugal, Socialist Jose Seguro was elected president.

In economic data:

• Eurozone's February Sentix Investor Confidence 4.2 (expected -0.2; last -1.8)
• Swiss Q1 SECO Consumer Climate -30, as expected (last -37)