U.S. stock-index futures rose on Thursday, as investors reacted positively to the Democrats’ gaining of control of the Senate and the Congress’  recognition of Joe Biden as the next U.S. president.

Global Stocks:

FXStreet notes that the S&P 500 Index has neutralized its recent bearish “reversal day” but has been unable to sustain its brief move to a new high and the Credit Suisse analyst team remains wary of directly chasing further strength for now.

“S&P 500 has neutralized its recent bearish ‘reversal day’ on even higher volume but the market has been unable as yet to sustain its move to new highs and is still capped at our next objective of 3765/85. With daily RSI momentum also still holding a bearish divergence we remain wary of immediately chasing strength directly further from here.” 

“Whilst support at 3697/95 holds the upside should still probably be given the slight benefit of the doubt for now, but with a break above 3785 needed to add momentum back to the rally with resistance then seen next at 3800 ahead of 3825/32 and eventually the ‘measured triangle objective’ at 3900.” 

(company / ticker / price / change ($/%) / volume)

3M (MMM) downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities; target $170

Coca-Cola (KO) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan; target $55

Credit Suisse (CS) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA Securities

McDonald's (MCD) upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer; target $240

Tesla (TSLA) upgraded to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital Mkts; target raised to $700

FXStreet notes that inflation is currently very low but there is high uncertainty over the level of inflation in the future: there is talk of deflation, but also of a return of inflation for various reasons. Economists at Natixis find that protection against inflation is provided by equities and real estate at all horizons in the eurozone and by only bonds at a very long horizon in the U.S.

“Inflation is currently very low both in the United States and in the eurozone. But there is high uncertainty over the future level of inflation, due to excess global savings; there is talk of a risk of deflation and strong money creation, population ageing, the energy transition, reshoring, etc. There is also talk of a return of inflation. Faced with this uncertainty, investors may want to protect against inflation.”

“We find a significant positive correlation between inflation and returns on equities and real estate in the eurozone in monthly, quarterly and annual data as well as over two and four-year periods and equity returns in the United States in annual data and bond returns in the United States over four-year periods.”

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) reported Q1 FY 2021 earnings of $1.22 per share (versus $1.37 per share in Q1 FY 2020), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.04 per share.

The company’s quarterly revenues amounted to $36.307 bln (+5.7% y/y), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $35.014 bln.

WBA rose to $44.80 (+4.11%) in pre-market trading.