5 things to know before the stock market opens Tuesday, March 5
- Target beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
- JetBlue and Spirit Airlines dropped their merger agreement.
- Bitcoin is getting close to its all-time high.
Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
All three major averages fell Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 pulling away from its record high. There were some bright spots for the day, though: Super Micro Computer soared 18% after the company was selected to join the S&P 500 later this month and AI darling Nvidia was up 3%. The overall losses Monday came as the market has, for the most part, been racing higher over the past several weeks. Follow live market updates here.
A shopper passes a sign for Black Friday sales at a Target store during a Black Friday sale in Arlington, Virginia, on November 22, 2023.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Target reported earnings and revenue for the important holiday quarter that topped Wall Street’s expectations, but the company also said it expects weak sales again in 2024. Indeed, the retailer’s comparable sales (which exclude online sales and sales from new stores, among other things) declined for the third quarter in a row, it said Monday. But the company stressed that it’s made progress after getting hit by a drop in discretionary spending as profits from the year-ago quarter grew. Shares of Target were up about 8% in premarket trading.
A JetBlue Airways plane sits on the tarmac at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 31, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Spirit Airlines and JetBlue are ending their agreement to merge, citing regulatory hurdles. The announcement comes weeks after a federal judge blocked JetBlue’s attempted takeover of budget carrier Spirit, saying it would “harm cost-conscious travelers who rely on Spirit’s low fares.” JetBlue made an unsolicited bid for Spirit Airlines nearly two years ago — right after Spirit had announced a different merger agreement with fellow budget airline Frontier. Spirit’s shares fell almost 11% on Monday, while JetBlue’s stock ended the day more than 4% higher.
A Ford Mustang Mach-E GT compact sports utility vehicle during the 2022 New York International Auto Show in New York on April 14, 2022.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Ford Motor’s U.S. sales leaped 10.5% last month compared with February 2023 — and the company has its electric vehicles and hybrid models to thank for the spike The automaker said Monday that it sold 174,192 cars and trucks for February. While most of those (89.5%) were traditional cars and trucks, Ford saw an 81% jump in EV sales and roughly 32% increase in hybrid model sales. The growth comes as Ford has been doubling down on hybrid technology.
CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Bitcoin is edging closer to its all-time high of $68,982.20, which was set in November 2021. The flagship cryptocurrency topped 68,000 at one point on Monday, according to Coin Metrics. Bitcoin gained about 21% last week, but the rally took a breather over the weekend. Other cryptocurrencies, including ether and meme coin Dogecoin also surged higher Monday, as did crypto-adjacent equities such as Coinbase and Microstrategy, which rose 11% and 24%, respectively.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring, Melissa Repko, Leslie Josephs, Rebecca Picciotto, Michael Wayland and Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report.
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