Dow Jones and S&P 500 Fell Monday. What About Other Stocks?

The Dow Jones futures and the S&P 500 futures declined slightly on Monday. On the other hand, Nasdaq futures surged forward. Moderna announced its positive final data from its Covid-19 vaccine. The company plans to file for its FDA approval today.

The stock market rallied during the last week. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq composite both skyrocketed to record highs. However, such a surge was mostly caused by some more speculative names, as well as the high bullish sentiment.

Zoom Video and CrowdStrike stocks planned to report their earnings this week. Tesla’s rival Nio will probably report monthly deliveries as well.

CrowdStrike stock seems like the top cybersecurity play currently. However, it may share the spotlight Wednesday night with two other major security software names: Okta (OKTA) and Zscaler (ZS). All of them have cleared early entries. Their guidance and results will be important for the cloud software and cybersecurity group broadly.

Thus far, Nio is the biggest of the Chinese electric car startups. Li Auto (LI) and Xpeng Motors (XPEV) are 2020 IPOs, and they also may release monthly deliveries next week. Furthermore, industrywide data will likely be released the following week.

How did major futures fare?

Dow Jones futures tumbled down by 0.5% versus fair value on Monday. The S&P 500 futures also decreased by 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed up by 0.2%.

Dow futures increased slightly due to the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine news. In addition, China’s official manufacturing index surged forward by 0.7 points to 52.1 in November, surpassing analysts’ expectations and reaching the highest level in three years.

Meanwhile, S&P Global decided to buy economic and financial data group IHS Markit Ltd. for $44 billion. That’s the largest merger deal of the year.

Coronavirus cases reached 63.18 million around the world, with deaths topped 1.46 million. Confirmed Covid-19 cases in the U.S. have surpassed 13.75 million.

According to a model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, actual U.S. coronavirus infections reached 52.9 million at the end of September. They could be almost 100 million now. However, the model assumes most cases are asymptomatic or mild and thus, are never tested.

On Friday, Los Angeles County declared a new lockdown order as infection cases surge in the U.S.’ most populous county. Starting Monday, the three-week order bans most gatherings. It also limits the capacity in retail stores and other non-essential businesses to 20% occupancy.

However, New York City plans to reopen elementary schools after Dec. 7, due to a growing consensus that the virus does not readily spread among and from children.