Stock futures lower on rate hike fears
U.S. equity futures were trading lower Friday morning, adding to the previous day’s decline.
The major futures indexes suggest a loss of 0.8% when the opening bell rings on Wall Street.
Oil prices are heading for a third straight losing week on concerns about tight supply.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded around $85.00 a barrel, after tumbling 3.8% in the previous session.
Brent crude futures traded around $91.00 a barrel after sliding 3.5% to a one-week low in the previous session.
On the economic agenda, the University of Michigan will release its consumer sentiment preliminary index for September. It’s expected to rise almost 2 points to 60.0, the third straight monthly increase after tumbling to an all-time low of 50.0 in June when record-high gasoline prices fueled inflation fears.
In Asia, stock markets followed Wall Street lower.
The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 1.1%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong retreated 0.9% and China’s Shanghai Composite index lost 2.3%.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 1.1% to 3,901.35, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% to 30,961.82. The Nasdaq slid 1.4% to 11,552.36.
The yield on the 10-year treasury was 3.46% on Friday morning.
Gasoline price declines
The average price of a gallon of gasoline slipped on Friday to $3.692, according to AAA. Thursday’s price was $3.698.
Gas has been on the decline since hitting a high of $5.016 on June 14. Analysts and traders say wholesale gasoline prices are expected to keep falling in coming months as U.S. refiners overproduce fuel to try to rebuild low stocks of diesel and heating oil.
Diesel’s price slipped to $4.977 per gallon.
Oil heads to another losing week
Oil prices are heading for a third straight losing week on concerns about tight supply.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded around $84.00 a barrel, after tumbling 3.8% in the previous session.
Brent crude futures traded around $90.00 a barrel after sliding 3.5% to a one-week low in the previous session.
Both benchmarks are headed for a third consecutive weekly loss, hurt partly by a strong U.S. dollar, which makes oil more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
The market was also rattled this week by the International Energy Agency’s outlook for almost zero growth in oil demand in the fourth quarter.
Cryptocurrency prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin were mixed Friday morning
Bitcoin was trading at around $19,000, after a three-day decline. For the week, Bitcoin was trading 2% higher. For the month, the cryptocurrency was down more than 1%.
Bitcoin is down more than 57% year-to-date.
Ethereum was trading around $1,400, following a 9% decline in the past week.
Dogecoin was trading just shy of 6 cents, trading more than 3% lower in the past week.
FedEx closing stores, offices, delaying hires
FedEx says a drop-off in its global package delivery business has triggered a belt-tightening move.
The company said Thursday it is closing storefronts and corporate offices while putting off new hiring.
The news has FedEx shares plunging 18% in premarket trading.
The company also said it will likely miss Wall Street’s profit target for its fiscal first quarter, and it expects business conditions to further weaken in the current quarter.
“Global volumes declined as macroeconomic trends significantly worsened later in the quarter, both internationally and in the U.S.,” FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam said in a statement. “We are swiftly addressing these headwinds, but given the speed at which conditions shifted, first-quarter results are below our expectations.”
Audi bets big on electric vehicles amid surging demand
Audi has been unable to keep up with customer demand for its portfolio of electric vehicles due to supply chain challenges.
“We see a huge demand for electric vehicles, actually more demand than supply,” Audi of America President Daniel Weissland told FOX Business. “The supply is challenged to a certain extent by the global supply issues we all have, and we constantly evaluate to see how we can increase our capacity to make sure that every customer gets to drive an electric vehicle.”
Audi reported a total of 48,049 vehicle deliveries in the second quarter of 2022, down 28% year over year. However, its all-electric e-tron family model line saw year-over-year sales growth of 87% during the quarter. The e-tron SUV, Sportback and GT delivered a combined total of 4,777 units during the quarter.
Though Weissland is “pretty confident” in the automaker’s ability to fulfill the majority of its EV orders, he expects that supply chain issues will likely persist for the next few years.
Read more on the story by clicking here: Audi bets big on electric vehicles as demand surges, supply chain snarls persist
Uber looking into computer system hack
Uber is investigating the extent of a hack of its computer systems.
The breach happened Thursday, causing the company to take several of its internal communications and engineering systems offline, according to the New York Times.
An Uber spokesman said the company was investigating the breach and contacting law enforcement officials.
Employees were told not to use the company’s internal messaging service, Slack, and found that other internal systems were inaccessible, two employees told The Times.
The person claiming to have carried out the hack told the outlet that he was able to convince an Uber employee that he was an IT person and got them to hand over a password that allowed him to gain access to Uber’s systems.
The hacker said he was 18 years old and broke into Uber’s system because the company had weak security.
Click here for more information: Uber looking into computer system hack
