Dow Jones futures rebound today. Indicates that Wall Street will rise tonight. Responding to the strong performance of listed companies The US economy grew by just 2.0 percent in the third quarter, the lowest level in more than a year.
At 8:11 p.m. Thai time, the Dow futures index gained 65 points or 0.18% to 35,454 points.
Nearly 40% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported third-quarter earnings, with more than 80% of them beating expectations. And analysts expect listed companies to see a 37.6% increase in profit growth in the third quarter.
Shares in U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co jumped more than 2 percent in pre-Wall Street trading today. After the company revealed higher-than-expected profit numbers in the third quarter, along with a revised earnings forecast for this year.
Merck posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, helped by sales of its cancer drug Keytruda. including sales of Gardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine.
The company posted earnings of $1.75 a share, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.55 a share.
Merck also raised its annual profit forecast to $5.65-5.70 a share from $5.47-5.57 a share.
Merck stated that This revised earnings forecast does not include molnupiravir sales. which is a drug to treat COVID-19 The company filed for emergency drug approval with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 11, with approval expected in early December. If approved, it will make the company more profitable.
The U.S. government previously ordered 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir from Merck for a total amount of $1.2 billion.
The U.S. Commerce Department released its first estimate for third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) today, showing the U.S. economy grew at just 2.0 percent, lower than analysts’ previous estimates. at 2.7%
The US economy’s third-quarter growth was the lowest since it experienced a 31.2 percent contraction in the second quarter of 2020.
Earlier, the US economy grew 6.7% in the second quarter and 6.3% in the first quarter.
The slowdown in the economy in the third quarter was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Delta species and the shortage of raw materials in the manufacturing sector which affects the supply chain causing car sales to drop including consumer spending figures
In addition, the economy has been negatively affected by the decline in fixed asset investments. and US government spending including the surge in the US trade deficit, which hit $96.3 billion in September. which is the highest level in history
For the past year 2020 The U.S. economy grew 4.3% in the fourth quarter after a 33.4 percent gain in the third quarter, a record expansion since the United States began collecting data in 1947, more than 70 years after the United States began easing lockdown measures. Meanwhile, the economy contracted 31.2 percent in the second quarter, a record-breaking contraction, and 5% in the first quarter, pushing the US economy into recession. due to the contraction of 2 consecutive quarters has been affected by the epidemic of the COVID-19 virus.
Meanwhile, analysts forecast the U.S. economy to grow 7.0 percent this year, the largest since 1984, after contracting 3.4 percent last year, the worst contraction since 1946.
Investors are keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy meeting on Nov. 2-3, with expectations that the Fed may cut its bond-buying program following quantitative easing (QE) at this meeting.
The disclosure of US economic numbers today. The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 to 281,000 last week. This is the lowest level since March 2020. This is the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic in the United States.
The number of claims for unemployment benefits was lower than analysts’ estimates of 290,000 and below 300,000 for the third week in a row.
However, the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits remains above 230,000, the weekly average before the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
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