The Dow Jones news today features uncertainty over Congress's healthcare legislation and U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae In. Dow Jones futures are up 37 points this morning as rising global inflation is encouraging investors.
Here are the numbers from Thursday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
| Index | Previous Close | Point Change | Percentage Change |
| Dow Jones | 21,287.03 | -167.58 | -0.78% |
| S&P 500 | 2,419.70 | -20.99 | -0.86% |
| Nasdaq | 6,144.35 | -90.06 | -1.44% |
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Now here's a closer look at today's most important market events and stocks, plus Friday's economic calendar.
The Five Top Stock Market Stories for Friday
- President Donald Trump will continue his meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae In at the White House in Washington. The two will continue to discuss global trade and the ongoing tension in the Korean Peninsula. According to reports, South Korea just proposed a peace treaty to North Korea, and the United States wasn't involved. Here are the details.
- In economic news, keep an eye out for the monthly reports on U.S. personal income and consumer spending, released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Economists anticipate a 0.3% uptick in personal income for May and a 0.4% uptick in consumer spending.
- Crude oil prices are on track for their first weekly gain since mid-May. For five weeks, oil prices have been declining thanks to a rise in U.S. shale production and ongoing uncertainty over OPEC's deal to cap excessive production. The WTI crude oil price today added 0.5%. Brent crude gained 0.2%. Markets will be eyeing today's weekly rig count report from Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) to determine the pace of rising U.S. production.
- Warren Buffett is back in the news today. His firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) exercised a huge number of warrants on shares of Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). Berkshire purchased the stock for $7.14 per share. Following yesterday's closing price, the firm is already up $12 billion on the deal, which was so large that Berkshire is now the largest shareholder of the bank.
- Elon Musk is back at it again. The CEO of Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) said that his firm will release "news on Sunday" about the company's Model 3. The news came in a Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) message after a user requested information on the date of the vehicle's release. Roughly 400,000 people have already preordered the vehicle, which was expected to be unveiled next month. TSLA stock is up nearly 1% this morning.
Five Stocks to Watch Today: NKE, MU, RAD, CARA, APRN
- Blue Apron Holdings Inc. (NYSE: APRN) was up slightly on its second day of trading. The company had a lackluster debut on the public markets yesterday. The company already faced pressures after it narrowed its IPO range this week. Investors have expressed concerns about the impact that Amazon will have in the global food and grocery business after its purchase of Whole Foods Market Inc. (NYSE: WFM). Blue Apron is the first meal-kit company to go public. Here's everything you need to know about Blue Apron.
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- In earnings news, shares of Nike Inc. (Nasdaq: NKE) jumped more than 5.7% in premarket hours. The company easily topped Wall Street earnings and revenue expectations and announced a pilot program to sell its shoes and apparel on Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN). The company reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.60 on $8.7 billion in revenue. That topped consensus expectations of $0.50 on $8.6 billion.
- Shares of Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) were up nearly 2% in premarket hours after the Chinese tech giant topped earnings expectations. The firm reported strong growth and hiked its forecast for sales in cloud computing and mobile chip demand. Company CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said on a conference call Thursday that he expects the semiconductor industry to experience healthy demand through 2018.
- Shares of Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) are off another 1% in premarket hours. The downturn comes a day after the stock crashed by 26% thanks to news that Walgreens Boots Alliance (NYSE: WBA) had abandoned its plans to acquire the company. Instead, Walgreens will simply purchase roughly half of Rite Aid's available stores. Walgreens, which topped Wall Street earnings expectations Thursday, saw its shares tick slightly higher in premarket hours.
- Finally, shares of Cara Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CARA) slumped nearly 30% in premarket hours. The downturn comes after the biotech company reported disappointing results from a major pain treatment study.
Friday's U.S. Economic Calendar (all times EDT)
- Personal Income and Outlays at 8:30 a.m.
- Chicago PMI at 9:45 a.m.
- Consumer Sentiment at 10 a.m.
- Baker-Hughes Rig Count at 1 p.m.
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About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.