U.S. stock-index futures fell on Thursday, as disappointing jobless claims data and rising numbers of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. outweighed better-than-expected earnings reports from Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of America (BAC) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Global Stocks:

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

Apple (AAPL) target raised to $444 from $310 at Canaccord Genuity 

Amazon (AMZN) target raised to $3450 from $2800 at Morgan Stanley

Cisco (CSCO) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan; target $50

Walt Disney (DIS) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen; target lowered to $97

Morgan Stanley (MS) reported Q2 FY 2020 earnings of $1.96 per share (versus $1.23 per share in Q2 FY 2019), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.13 per share.

The company’s quarterly revenues amounted to $13.414 bln (+30.9% y/y), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $10.392 bln.

MS rose to $51.80 (+0.88%) in pre-market trading.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reported Q2 FY 2020 earnings of $1.67 per share (versus $2.58 per share in Q2 FY 2019), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.51 per share.

The company’s quarterly revenues amounted to $18.336 bln (-10.8% y/y), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $17.730 bln.

The company also issued raised guidance for FY2020, projecting EPS of $7.75-7.95 (compared to its previous forecast of $7.50-7.70 and analysts’ consensus estimate of $7.75) and revenues of $81.0-82.5 bln (compared to its previous forecast of $79.2-82.2 bln and analysts’ consensus estimate of $79.7 bln).

JNJ fell to $147.55 (-0.48%) in pre-market trading.

Bank of America (BAC) reported Q2 FY 2020 earnings of $0.37 per share (versus $0.74 per share in Q2 FY 2019), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.28 per share.

The company’s quarterly revenues amounted to $22.300 bln (-3.5% y/y), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $21.715 bln.

BAC fell to $24.15 (-1.83%) in pre-market trading.

FXStreet notes that equity market indices and economic fundamentals have already decoupled. When the uncertainty subsides, this decoupling will become even more pronounced, which will lead to a tax on buyers of equities, a misallocation of savings and the appearance of bubbles and the risk of a financial crisis if these bubbles burst, per Natixis.  

“The level of uncertainty remains high when it comes to public health (will there be a second wave of the pandemic?), geopolitics (will there be a new wave of US protectionism?) and the economy (how fast will it recover?). Yet we are seeing a clear recovery in equity market indices and the sharp rise in PERs is a clear illustration that indices and fundamentals have decoupled, indices having risen far more than the trajectory of future earnings would imply.”

“When the uncertainty subsides, we should therefore expect equity market indices to be markedly higher than fundamentals. This situation has both microeconomic and macroeconomic consequences: a tax on buyers of equities, since they will buy them at excessive prices, a misallocation of savings, since share prices will no longer give information on the situation of companies and the risk of financial crises, due to the appearance of equity bubbles, then the risk of these bubbles bursting, as we saw in 2000-2001.”

Alcoa (AA) reported Q2 FY 2020 loss of $0.02 per share (versus -$0.01 per share in Q2 FY 2019), much better than analysts’ consensus estimate of -$0.23 per share.

The company’s quarterly revenues amounted to $2.148 bln (-20.8% y/y), beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $2.116 bln.

AA rose to $13.20 (+4.02%) in pre-market trading.