Here are five things you must know for Friday, September 23:
1. -- Stock Futures Extend Slide Amid Global Market Slump
U.S. equity futures extended declines into a fourth consecutive session Friday, while global stocks fell to the lowest levels in two years, as investors retreated from risk markets amid hawkish central bank rate signaling and slumping global growth.
The Federal Reserve's 75 basis point rate hike earlier this week, the third in succession, was echoed by both moves and rhetoric from central banks around the world this week, lifting benchmark borrowing costs and paring global stocks.
The hawkishness has, for the most part, only benefited the U.S. dollar, which scaled to another 20-year peak against its global peers despite the first currency market intervention from the Bank of Japan -- aimed at bolstering the beaten-down yen -- since 1998.
Economic activity data from Europe underscored the impact of both rate hikes and hawkish signaling, with Germany's powerhouse manufacturing sector indicating a deep September contraction and the region-wide composite PMI reading holding below the 50 point mark that indicates growth for the second consecutive month.
In the U.S., where the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow forecasting tool suggests third quarter growth of just 0.3%, the bond market continues to flash recession warnings, with benchmark 2-year note yields rising to 4.16% overnight, placing them around 44 basis points north of 10-year notes.
The U.S. dollar index, meanwhile, rose another 0.61% in overnight trading to a fresh two-decade high of 112.03, pushing both euro to 0.9755 and the pound to its lowest levels against the greenback in more than 37 years.
Stocks in Europe were back in the red Friday, as well, with the Stoxx 600marked 0.92% lower in early Frankfurt trading and the FTSE 100 down 0.81% in London as finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng delivered the first budget under new Prime Minister Liz Truss.
That followed a 1.65% decline for the MSCI ex-Japan index in Asia as stocks in China remain stuck at four-month lows on renewed growth concerns in the world's second-largest economy.
In the U.S., futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 are indicating a 25 point opening bell decline the Dow Jones Industrial Average are priced for a 185 point retreat. Futures tied to the tech-focused Nasdaq are indicating a 100 point move to the downside.
2. -- Costco Beats On Q4 Earnings But Profit Margins Pressured
Costco (COST) shares moved lower in pre-market trading after the bulk retailer posted stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings but saw profit margins narrow amid stubbornly high input costs.
Costco said diluted earnings for the quarter rose 11.7% from last year to $4.20 per share on total revenues of $72.09 billion. Same store sales were up 13.7% globally and 15.8% in the United States, Costco said, with e-commerce sales rising 7.1%. Membership revenues were up 7.5% to $1.327 billion for the quarter and $4.224 billion for the year.
Still, gross margins narrowed by around 80 basis points to 10.18%, Costco noted, while overall inventories were up 26% from last year, with some modest improvement over "just the past few weeks".
Costco shares were marked 2.5% lower in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $475.15 each, a move that would extend the stock's six-month decline to around 15%.
3. -- DocuSign Shares Get Bump From New CEO Appointment
DocuSign (DOCU) shares moved higher in pre-market trading after the online signature vending group named former Google ad executive Allan Thygesen as group CEO.
Thygesen, xxx, will replace interim CEO Maggie Wilderotter, who was put in pace earlier this year following the departure of Dan Springer, who has run the group since 2017.
DocuSign which has been struggling to hold investor interest as pandemic-era restrictions bring more and more professionals back to the office, earned 44 cents per share over the three months ending in July, topping Street forecasts on a non-GAAP basis by around 2 cents per share.
The group also notched a 22% gain in revenues, which hit $622.2 million, and said full-year sales would likely rise to between $2.47 and $2.48 billion and billings of between $2.5 and $2.57 billion, thanks in part to an expanded partnership with Microsoft MSFT which will see the tech giant using DocuSign's products and services in its contract management workflows.
DocuSign shares were marked 0.5% higher in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $54.25 each.
4. -- Boeing, Ex-CEO Muilenburg, Agree $200 Million SEC Fine
Boeing (BA), as well as former CEO Dennis Muilenburg, agreed to pay just over $200 million in fines to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors in the aftermath of two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft.
Muilenburg, who left Boeing in 2019, will pay a $1 million penalty, the SEC said, with Boeing paying $200 million, with neither party admitting or denying the SEC's allegation that each made "materially misleading public statements following crashes of Boeing airplanes in 2018 and 2019."
Boeing officially acknowledged that its software system played a role in two deadly 737 MAX 8 accidents in April of 2019.
The planemaker said the cause of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302's fatal crash, which killed 157 people in Mach of 2019, as well as the Lion Air 610 disaster in Indonesia in early October of 2018, which took the lives of 189 people, were caused by activation of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, in response to "erroneous angle of attack information" from a broken sensor.
"In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets," said SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. "The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this most basic obligation".
Boeing shares were marked 0.25% lower in pre-market trading to indicate an opening bell price of $138.35 each.
5. -- Apple
Apple (AAPL) looks to have stolen a march on Amazon (AMZN) in the bidding war for rights to the NFL Sunday Ticker package of programing after reaching at deal late Thursday to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show.
The National Football League said it's reached a multiyear agreement with Apple Music for the event, typically the most-watched of the year, that will being with the AFC championships in February. PepsiCo's (PEP) 10-year sponsorship deal ended in 2022.
The Super Bowl itself is slated for February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Apple, as well as Amazon and Google (GOOGL), are reportedly interested in the right to the Sunday Ticket package, currently offered by DirectTV, when that two-decade deal concludes at the end of this season. Estimates suggest the Sunday Ticket package could come at a price of around $2 billion a year.
Amazon has already dipped its toe in the water of living sports streaming, and recently paid $1 billion for the the rights to broadcast Thursday night games over the next eleven years.
