The stock market held up surprisingly well on Friday, if you can say that with the S&P 500 down almost 27% from its all-time highs earlier this year. We saw selling pressure eventually pick up in the stock market today, following a disappointing jobs report for March.
The fact that the market only slipped lower, down about 1.5% for the day, instead of plummeting lower may be a promising sign. At least, for now.
That’s after 6.65 million Americans filed for jobless claims this week. That’s double the prior record from the week before and roughly double economists’ expectations. The monthly non-farm payrolls report that was released on Friday morning was even worse.
According to the report, more than 700,000 jobs were lost, blasting expectations for a loss of 100,000 jobs. Worse, the tally does not include the labor market after March 12. So next month’s report is likely to be ugly as well.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
The Big 3 — Ford (NYSE:F), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU) — disappointed Wall Street with their quarterly sales numbers. Not Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) though.
Analysts expected the company to report first-quarter deliveries of just 79,900. Instead Tesla delivered a Q1 record of 88,400 vehicles. The automaker also produced more than 100,000 vehicles in the quarter, despite its Fremont and Shanghai facilities not being open the whole time due to the novel coronavirus.
Shares rallied 5.6% in the stock market today.
AT&T (NYSE:T) is doing what it can to help with the coronavirus pandemic. It’s offering up to 500 hours free of HBO for everyone starting today. The company is also increasing mobile hotspot data by 15 gigabytes a month from now until at least May 13. The company is also committing $5.5 million to first responders for things such as meals and free FirstNet Ready phones for life.
According to sources, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be postponing Prime Day until at least August instead of its typical July date. The company will likely take a $100 million hit due to the production of extra devices that it may now have to sell at a discount.
Disney (NYSE:DIS) will be changing some release dates for its new films, due to the impact of Covid-19. Since most theaters are continuing to be closed, the tentative release of Mulan is moving to a July 24 release date, Jungle Cruise is now set for June 2021, and Marvel won’t be releasing Black Widow until Nov. 6, while also bumping several other Marvel films back as well.
For now, the company plans to release some of its bigger sequels in 2022, with Captain Marvel 2 and Black Panther 2 coming in July 2022 and May 2022, respectively.
Coronavirus Treatments
Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) hopes to see preliminary coronavirus treatment results by the end of April. Its drug Kevzara, which is an arthritis treatment, could show positive results in helping those infected with Covid-19. Studies of the treatment began on March 30.
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) is showing promise with its coronavirus treatment, using remdesivir. The drug, which is in Phase 3 trials in the United Kingdom, received the recommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to approve the drug for compassionate use in those suffering from Covid-19.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long DIS and T.
