Stock market news live updates: Stock futures open slightly higher with some states’ reopenings under way – Yahoo Finance

Stock News

Posted on May 4, 2020

Stock futures opened slightly higher Monday evening after a choppy session during the regular trading day, as investors weighed a plethora of developments impacting the health, economic, corporate profitability and geopolitical implications of the coronavirus pandemic.

June crude oil futures (CL=F) extended gains, after settling higher for a fourth straight session and above $20 per barrel for the first time since mid-April earlier Monday.

Across the U.S., cases as a whole rose to more than 1.1 million, with deaths topping 67,000. States including New York and New Jersey, where stay-in-place orders are still in effect, cases fell on a day-over-day basis yet again. In California, the latest daily death toll was 39 on Monday, the lowest in three weeks.

However, other states that have begun to ease stay-in-place measures, including Georgia, recorded daily increases in new deaths, spooking investors over the viability of near-term opening plans and sending stocks lower during Monday’s session before recovering.

Monday also brought with it more signs of distress from some of the industries most exposed to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing measures aimed at containing it.

After market close, L Brands (LB) said it and private equity firm Sycamore Partners struck a deal to terminate a previously announced deal to have the latter take a majority state in Victoria’s Secret and take it private. And earlier, J.Crew’s parent company Chinos Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, converting nearly $2 billion in debt to equity and transferring ownership as the beleaguered retailer struggled to maintain sales as hundreds of physical locations shuttered during the outbreak.

The bankruptcy – the first by a major retailer amid the pandemic – is almost certainly not the last, with Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney reportedly also discussing the possibility of bankruptcy financing with lenders. Retail sales for the clothing and accessory stores category as a whole were down more than 50% in March, the Commerce Department previously reported.

Meanwhile, shares of each of the four major U.S. airlines Delta (DAL), United Airlines (UAL), American Airlines (AAL) and Southwest (LUV) rose in late trading after ending the regular session lower, after Warren Buffett announced Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway had sold its entire about 10% previous stake in each of these carriers.

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Here were the main moves at the start of the overnight session for U.S. equity futures, as of 6:04 p.m. ET: