What to watch today: Wall Street tries to build on recovery from last week

U.S. stock futures were pointing to further gains at Tuesday's open as the Federal Reserve begins its two-day September meeting. Optimism toward a coronavirus vaccine sparked a broad market rally Monday after last week's declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 327 points or 1.2%. The 30-stock benchmark also closed higher Friday. (CNBC)

The S&P 500 was up 1.3% on Monday. The Nasdaq, led by a bounce in tech stocks after last week's rout, was the big winner on the day, up 1.9%. Apple shares, which gained 3% on Monday, rose again in the premarket ahead of the tech giant's virtual product launch event Tuesday afternoon. After the stock market close, FedEx is set to report fiscal first-quarter earnings. (CNBC)

* Here are two new health features Apple could announce for the Apple Watch (CNBC)

In the first CNBC Fed Survey since the central bank announced its new, more dovish monetary policy strategy, respondents now forecast no interest rate hikes until 2023. The new average forecast, which has the Fed on hold until February 2023, is six months later than July's CNBC survey.

* Social Security cost-of-living adjustment could be 1.3% in 2021 (CNBC)

The International Energy Agency on Tuesday cut its forecast for 2020 oil demand growth, citing what it calls a "treacherous" path ahead due to weakening market sentiment and an upsurge in the number of coronavirus cases reported across the globe. The IEA report comes after OPEC on Monday cut its own forecast for oil demand growth in 2020. (CNBC)

IN THE NEWS TODAY

Bill Gates, whose foundation works on difficult global health issues, said he does not believe any of the coronavirus vaccines currently in development are likely to seek U.S. approval before the end of October. That would be bad news for President Donald Trump, who has hinted at news of a viable vaccine before Election Day on Nov. 3. (CNBC)

* Gates: 'Next big question' is how to distribute vaccines to people in need (CNBC)
* Global coronavirus deaths rose last week, WHO says (CNBC)

Becton Dickinson & Co. is investigating reports from nursing homes that federally provided rapid coronavirus testing equipment from the company is producing false-positive results in some cases. So far, the number of reports is small, nursing-home industry officials said. (WSJ)

Facebook (FB) announced last night it will launch a new information hub to provide its users with "science-based information" about climate change. It said a link to the hub will appear when people search for information related to climate change on Facebook, or when people see certain posts related to the subject. (CNBC)

* Facebook buys REI's elaborate new headquarters as Covid-19 pandemic prompts a sale (WSJ)

Chamath Palihapitiya's SPAC Social Capital Hedosophia II will acquire Opendoor, an online marketplace for buying and selling houses. The deal values Opendoor at $4.8 billion. "These guys are my next 10x idea," Palihapitiya said in an interview with CNBC, noting the prospect of generating returns worth 10 times the original investment. (CNBC)

China-based ByteDance is banking on Trump backing off comments that a full sale of TikTok's U.S. operations would be needed to avoid an American ban of the wildly popular social media service. The biggest loser from the proposed Oracle deal, as a "trusted technology partner," could be former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer. (CNBC)

* ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet,’ analyst says, as TikTok hits 100 million users in Europe (CNBC)
* Chinese version of TikTok now has 600 million daily active users (CNBC)

ViacomCBS (VIAC) announced Tuesday that its CBS All Access streaming service will be rebranded as Paramount+ in early 2021. It also announced some new series. The rebranded service will take on rivals including WarnerMedia's HBO Max, Disney's Hulu and Disney+, and NBCUniversal's Peacock as traditional media companies dip into streaming. Comcast (CMCSA) owns NBCUniversal and CNBC.

It may feel like old news by now, but Bob Woodward's new Trump book is scheduled for release on Tuesday. The formal publication of "Rage" will likely include more rounds of publicity that will ensure damning revelations about the president's leadership will continue to reach broad swaths of voters. (AP)

Trump on Tuesday is set to preside over the signing of diplomatic deals between Israel and two Gulf Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which could herald a dramatic shift in Mideast power dynamics and give him a boost ahead of the November election. (AP)

The president, on Monday's trip to California, ignored the scientific consensus that climate change is playing a central role in historic West Coast wildfires and renewed his unfounded claim that failure to rake forest floors and clear dead timber is mostly to blame. (AP)

Hurricane Sally, a plodding storm with winds of 85 mph, crept toward the northern Gulf Coast early Tuesday as forecasters warned of potentially deadly storm surges and flash floods with up to 2 feet of rain and the possibility of tornadoes. Forecasters stressed "significant" uncertainty as to where the storm's eye would make landfall. (AP)

STOCKS TO WATCH

Nvidia (NVDA) shares rose in premarket trading after Needham raised its price target to a Street high of $700 per share from $600 per share. The Wall Street firm, which has a "buy" rating on Nvidia, said the company's acquisition of Arm could potentially add $1.20 to $1.65 per share to earnings in 2022.

Homebuilder  Lennar (LEN) shares dipped in premarket trading despite reporting earnings and revenue that beat analysts' forecasts. Lennar earned $2.12 per share on revenue of $5.87 billion. Wall Street expected earnings of $1.55 per share on revenue of $5.48 billion, according to Refinitiv. The company said the home average sale price was expected to decline in the fiscal fourth quarter. 

Walmart's (WMT) membership program, Walmart+, officially launches on Tuesday, as a competitor to Amazon Prime. The membership includes unlimited free delivery on orders over $35, and discounts on gas, among other things.

Amazon jumped in premarket trading after announcing a new shopping platform called "luxury stores." The high-end shopping experience will be available Tuesday on the Amazon app by invitation. Oscar de la Renta marks the first store featuring its pre-fall and fall/winter 2020 collections.

Tesla (TSLA) shares popped in the premarket, extending Monday's 12% gain. Tesla lost more than 10% last week as the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite had its worst week since March. 

VF Corp. (VFC) shares rose in the premarket trading after BTIG upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral." The Wall Street firm said it sees tailwinds in brands Vans and The North Face, as well as improvement in online traffic. BTIG has a $88 per share price target on VF Corp. 

Sony (SNE) shares ticked lower in premarket trading after saying it was cutting production targets for its upcoming Playstation 5 by 20%, due to issues with the consoles' chips. 

Kraft Heinz (KHC) shares popped in premarket trading after The Wall Street Journal reported Kraft Heinz is planning to cut $2 billion in costs over the next five years. 

Nikola (NKLA) shares fell in premarket trading on a report the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company on allegations from a Wall Street research shop Hindenburg Research that Nikola deceived investors about its business products.

WATERCOOLER

Billionaire Steve Cohen has reached a deal to buy the New York Mets baseball team. The sale must still be approved by 23 of the 30 Major League Baseball team owners before it can become official. With a net worth of $14.6 billion, Cohen will be the wealthiest individual majority owner in the league, according to Forbes. (CNBC)

Source: Read Full Article