Premarket
U.S. equity futures are set to open sharply higher this morning on positive bank earnings reports (JPM in particular), on strong loan growth out of China, on a huge rally in Disney shares (per yesterday’s announcement that its streaming service [that’ll be unprofitable for years btw] is about to come on line), and on news that Chevron has agreed to pony up $33 billion to purchase Anadarko.
As for data releases, import and export prices for March increased above consensus expectations. Futures dipped a few points immediately (still up a bunch) on that inflation tidbit, as there remains heightened sensitivity that a Fed rate hike could come back on the table in the not too distant future.
Bottom line: At least in the premarket, traders, save for the inflation print, like what they’re seeing. And with consumer sentiment and rig counts being the only other notable data releases left to come this morning, I suspect they’ll stay long into the weekend — barring any negative news on trade negotiations, that is.