Stocks Move Lower As Traders Take Profits At The End Of The Month

Stocks Set To Open Lower

S&P 500 futures are under pressure in premarket trading as traders take some profits off the table ahead of the weekend.

Amazon provided a solid quarterly report, easily beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue, and its shares are gaining about 3% in premarket trading.

However, the report did not boost optimism in the tech space, and other big tech stocks like Apple or Facebook are losing ground in premarket trading.

It should be noted that stocks remain very close to all-time high levels so its not surprising to see some profit-taking at the end of the month.

Oil Market Is Under Pressure As The Situation In India Gets Worse

Yesterday, India reported almost 387,000 new coronavirus cases, which was its new daily record. The situation is clearly getting out of control, and it remains to be seen whether India will be able to find measures that will help it deal with the rising number of hospitalizations and deaths.

The oil market has previously ignored India‘s problems as traders focused on OPEC+ compliance with the production cut deal and cheered organization’s decision to gradually increase production over the next few months.

However, it becomes harder to ignore the problems in India, and WTI oil is currently trying to settle below $63.50. Most likely, oil-related stocks will have a challenging start of todays trading session.

Personal Income Grew By 21.1% In March

The U.S. has just provided Personal Income and Personal Spending reports for March. Personal Income increased by 21.1% month-over-month compared to analyst consensus which called for growth of 20.3% as it was boosted by the new round of stimulus.

Personal Spending grew by 4.2% month-over-month, mostly in line with the analyst consensus of 4.1%.

Today, traders will also have a chance to take a look at the final reading of Consumer Confidence report for April which is projected to show that Consumer Confidence improved from 84.9 in March to 87.4 in April.