Stock futures are flat after S&P 500 notches highest close since August: Live updates

Bank of America Analyst Vivek Arya reiterated a buy rating on Broadcom after a keynote address from CEO Hock Tan at the firm’s global technology conference. The analyst said Broadcom continues to be a “best-in-class” buying opportunity as artificial intelligence drives earnings power.

“Management presented a compelling and unique vision of focus on premium compute/networking products, laserfocus on operational efficiency, consistent GM expansion, and best-in-class FCF generation/returns (FCF margins of 50%+ the highest in semiconductor industry),” Arya wrote in a Wednesday note.

— Sarah Min

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading.

Stitch Fix — Shares jumped more than 7% after the company’s fiscal third-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA earnings came above expectations. The company mentioned it focused on “improving efficiencies, maintaining profitability and cash flow” during the third quarter.

GameStop — The meme stock added 2.4% premarket ahead of quarterly results on Wednesday. Analysts polled by FactSet are forecasting a quarterly loss of an adjusted 15 cents per share.

Coinbase — The crypto exchange climbed about 2% in premarket following a 12% selloff the day before. The SEC sued Coinbase on Tuesday, alleging the company was operating as an unregistered exchange and broker. Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood bought the dip in Coinbase.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Cocoa futures (SEP) hit a high of $3,096 per metric tonne. The commodity traded at its highest levels since Aug. 19, 2016 during Tuesday’s trading session, when cocoa traded as high as $3,120.

Many experts say climate change is partly responsible with some forecasts showing that the temperature in the Ivory Coast will climb 3.8 degrees by 2050, which will cause soil and plants to dry out. Close to 90% of cacao-growing land in the Ivory Coast and Ghana could be unsuitable for cultivation, according to estimates.

Hershey announced it was raising prices on all of its products in Feb of 2022 due to the rising cost of ingredients.

Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood added to her Coinbase holding Tuesday, unfazed by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charges against the crypto exchange.

Wood snapped up 329,773 shares of Coinbase for her flagship ARK Innovation ETF in the previous session when the stock tumbled more than 12%. She also added 53,885 shares for ARK Next Generation Internet ETF as well as another 35,666 shares for Ark Fintech Innovation ETF. Combined, these purchases were worth more than $21.6 million based on Coinbase’s closing price of $51.61.

Coinbase shares gained more than 3% Wednesday during premarket trading.

The full story can be found here.

DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said Tuesday that it looks increasingly likely the U.S. will tip into a recession.

The noted fixed income investor pointed to the U.S. leading the index of 10 economic indicators from the Conference Board, saying it looks “absolutely full on recessionary.”

“It’s pretty clear that we have the look of soon to be at the front end of a recession,” Gundlach said during a DoubleLine investor webcast, adding indicators including ISM new orders and the purchasing managers’ index appeared to be signaling a downturn.

— Yun Li

Tom Essaye of The Sevens Report said Tuesday’s session showed some signs of broadening market leadership, as the small-cap Russell 2000 index rallied more than 2%.

“The ‘baton’ is being passed from mega-cap ‘AI’ names to cyclical sectors,” Essaye said in a note to clients. “From a tactical stand-point, that means the next leg of a rally, should it hap-pen, will likely see the following outperform: RSP (equal-weight S&P 500), IWM (Russell 2000 ETF), industrials (XLI), materials (XLB) and, if you’re into volatility and like loaded risk/reward, financials (XLF) and energy (XLE).”

The large-cap S&P 500 closed at its highest level since August on Tuesday and is up more than 10% year to date. However, many on Wall Street are concerned that only a few tech-related names are driving that upside.

— Fred Imbert

U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly on Wednesday as investors considered the outlook for the economy and Federal Reserve interest rates ahead of the central bank’s next policy meeting on June 13 and 14.

Mixed messages from central bank officials and strong economic data have raised questions among investors about whether the Fed will pause or continue its rate-hiking campaign.

At 4:38 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was trading over one basis point lower at 3.6832%. The 2-year Treasury yield was down by more than one basis point to 4.5103%.

Stocks in Japan tumbled in Wednesday’s afternoon, as investors sold off ahead of the fixing of special quotation prices at the end of the week.

The Nikkei sharply fell by more than 1.8% and the Topix fell 1.34% – with the latter seeing declines led by healthcare, industrials, and technology stocks.

Shares of Sony led gains and fell 1.95%, followed by Tokyo Electron, Keyence Corp, and Daikin Industries.

The reverse in gains after Japanese stocks marked a new three decade high in previous sessions. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.2% to 139.36 against the U.S. dollar.

– Jihye Lee

China exports dropped more than expected in May, government data showed.

Exports fell 7.5% year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms, falling further than forecasts of 0.4% in a Reuters poll. Imports meanwhile fell 4.5% year-on-year, slightly above expectations of an 8% drop.

The trade surplus missed expectations and stood at $65.81 billion.

The onshore Chinese yuan weakened and last traded at 7.1190 against the U.S. dollar.

– Jihye Lee

Australia’ first quarter gross domestic product expanded by 2.3% year-on-year, just slightly below analyst expectations.

This was the slowest rate of growth in 18 months since the country emerged from a Covid-19 lockdown in September 2021.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast an expansion of 2.4%, compared to the 2.7% expansion in the fourth quarter of 2022.

On a quarter on quarter basis, GDP grew by 0.2%, compared to the 0.3% expected in the Reuters poll.

— Lim Hui Jie

European stocks opened mixed Wednesday, but sentiment generally remains subdued and markets lack direction.

The pan-European Stoxx index was up 0.1% at market open before quickly dropping into negative territory, with sectors a mix of minor gains and losses. Banking stocks had a marginal uptick of 0.5%, followed by retail, which was up 0.4%. Health-care stocks, chemicals and telecom each dropped 0.4%.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Stitch Fix‘s stock added more than 4% in extended trading after reporting better-than-expected results for the recent quarter, including a smaller-than-expected loss.

The online clothing and styling company with a market capitalization totaling roughly $414 million, posted a loss of 19 cents per share on $395 million in revenue. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected a 30-cent loss per share on revenues totaling $389 million.

Stitch Fix said it will explore exiting the U.K. market in the 2024 fiscal year.

— Samantha Subin

Dave & Buster’s stock rose nearly 4% in extended trading after the entertainment company posted first-quarter revenue that topped Wall Street’s expectations.

The company reported earnings of $1.45 a share. That came in 21 cents above the $1.24 expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Dave & Buster’s reported $597 million in revenue for period, slightly below the expected $602 million.

— Samantha Subin