Stock futures fall after a jump in U.S. inflation; bitcoin sinks after Elon Musk says Tesla is no longer accepting payments in the digital currency; Colonial Pipeline restarts; Disney and Alibaba report earnings.
Here are five things you must know for Thursday, May 13:
1. Stock Futures Signal a Further Wall Street Retreat
Stock futures pointed to a drop for Wall Street on Thursday after a jump in U.S. consumer prices added to worries that higher inflation could hamper an economic recovery.
Contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 156 points, S&P 500 futures were down 10 points and Nasdaq futures declined 15 points.
Stocks ended lower Wednesday for a third straight sessionafter consumer inflation in the U.S. rose in April by the most since 2009. The Dow tumbled nearly 2%, the S&P 500 dropped 2.14% and the Nasdaq slumped 2.67%.
The Dow suffered its worst day since January.
"Inflation and interest rate jitters are hitting the market ... but for now the selloff has been orderly," said Cliff Hodge, chief investment officer for Cornerstone Wealth. "Letting some air out of these sky-high valuations is a positive going forward. We’re heading to the seasonally slow time of the year, so sell in May is top of mind."
Investors have grown increasingly worried that persistent inflation will force the Federal Reserve to pull back on stimulus and boost interest rates that are near zero.
The Fed has insisted that any spike in inflation would be temporary. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said as much on Wednesday and added the central bank "would not hesitate to act” if necessary to bring inflation down to its "2% longer-run goal."
2. Bitcoin Sinks After Musk Says Tesla Will No Longer Accept It for Purchases
Bitcoin dropped sharply to below $50,000 after Tesla (TSLA) -Get Report CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his electric vehicle company wasno longer accepting payments in the digital currencybecause of environmental concerns.
“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emission of any fuel,” Musk said in a tweet late Wednesday.
Musk added that Tesla won’t be selling any of the bitcoin it holds. He said the company was looking at other cryptocurrencies that use far less energy per transaction.
Bitcoin gained additional credibility earlier this year whenTesla said it had bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrencyand announced it would begin accepting bitcoin for payments.
The world's largest cryptocurrency pared earlier losses and was recently down 12.13% to $49,670, according to CoinDesk.
Tesla fell 1.61% in premarket trading Thursday to $580.41. The stock declined 4.42% in Wednesday's broad market selloff.
3. Oil Drops as Colonial Pipeline Restarts After Hack
Oil prices in the U.S. fell more than 2% early Thursday after the biggest U.S. pipeline slowly started to return to service following a cyberattack at the end of last week.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 2.51% to $64.42 a barrel.
Colonial Pipeline said it initiated a restart at around 5 p.m. ETbut cautioned "it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal.
"Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal," the company added in a statement.
The Colonial network is the main source of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the East Coast.
The pipeline's shutdown on May 7 led to gas shortages in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. and sent gas prices soaring to above $3 a barrel for the first time in roughly seven years.
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4. Boeing Gets FAA Approval for Electrical Fixes to 737 MAX
Boeing (BA) -Get Report received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for a fix to electrical issues that affected about 100 of the jetmaker's 737 MAX aircraft.
The electrical problem grounded a portion of Boeing's 737 MAX fleet in early April.
The company told Reuters that after "gaining final approvals from the FAA, we have issued service bulletins for the affected fleet. We are also completing the work as we prepare to resume deliveries."
Boeing didn't specify when the jets might return to service but expectations are that 737 MAX flights could resume within days.
The electrical issue was unrelated to the grounding in 2019 of the 737 MAX following two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Boeing shares were down 0.31% to $220.10 in premarket trading.
5.Thursday's Calendar: Disney, Alibaba and Coinbase Earnings; Jobless Claims
Earnings reports are expected Thursday from Walt Disney DIS, Alibaba BABA, Airbnb ABNB, Coinbase COIN, Yeti Holdings YETI, Canada Goose GOOS, DoorDash DASH and Xpeng XPEV.
Puke or Profit? How to Ride Disney After Earnings
Bitcoin as Gold, Dogecoin as a Dog: Here Comes Coinbase Earnings
The U.S.economic calendarThursday includes weekly Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m. ET and the Producer Price Index (Final Demand) for April at 8:30 a.m.
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