It seems that the US stock market rally is coming to a close amid the ongoing earnings season. Housing starts in the US have decreased by 8%, indicating that the sector is stagnating. This is another signal that the economy is sliding down into a recession. Investors did not expect housing starts to decrease so sharply. However, the number of building permits rose by 1.2% in October, which allowed indexes to mitigate some of the losses during the premarket.
Premarket movers
Procter & Gamble advanced by 1.7% during the premarket, as the consumer goods giant's quarterly earnings of $1.57 per share beat forecasts of economists by 3 cents. The company's in organic sales also increased by 7%. However, P&G has revised its yearly revenue outlook downwards due to the impact from a stronger US dollar.
Shares of Travelers increased by 1% in premarket action after the company beat top and bottom line estimates for its latest quarter. The insurance company's catastrophe losses rose from a year ago, but its results were helped by record insurance premiums.
Generac tumbled by 20.8% during the premarket after the power equipment maker released preliminary third-quarter results that fell below Wall Street forecasts.
Nasdaq added 1,5% in premarket trading following reports of better-than-expected profit and revenue for the third quarter. The company noted strong demand for its various investment products as investors revamped their portfolios.
Shares of Netflix rose by 12.2% during the premarket on the news that the streaming company has added 2.4 million new subscribers. That was more than twice the video streaming service's prediction. Netflix managed to reverse a trend that saw it lose subscribers for the past two quarters.
Adobe increased by 1.7% during the premarket after the software developer reaffirmed its prior current-quarter outlook, encouraging investors who have seen other tech companies cut their forecasts as sales decline.
On the technical side, the S&P 500 has tried to break through the resistance of $3,735 again today, following yesterday's active growth phase. Buying the index at its current highs is more of a gamble at this point. However, buying the instrument as part of a medium-term strategy should not cause any problems. As long as the index is trading above $3,699, the demand for risky assets should persist. It also creates good conditions for trading instrument's further upside movement, as well as a breakthrough of $3,735. Bulls may count on it at the beginning of the trading session. Only this scenario will make a further upward correction to the resistance at $3,773 more likely. The most distant target for the index is near $3,801. If the price goes down, bulls will have to act near $3,699 and $3,661. However, if these levels are pierced, the instrument may slide down to $3,621 and a new support level of $3,579, a new yearly low.
