Stock Market Today: Dow Jumps as Putin Cites ‘Positive Shifts’

Text size

Stocks were jumping Friday, on hopes for diplomatic progress between Russia and Ukraine. Whether the gains can last the day remains to be seen.

Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures rose 296 points, or 0.9%, while

S&P 500
futures had gained 1.1%, and

Nasdaq Composite
futures had climbed 1.3%.

“Futures are moderately higher on growing optimism for a sooner than later cease fire in the Russia/Ukraine war,” wrote Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research. 

That’s an about-face from Thursday, when stocks dipped as news emerged that talks in Turkey between the two sides yielded no positive result. But on Friday, Reuters reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin said there had been some “positive shifts” in talks between the two sides. 

Whatever the truth may be, the extreme levels of fear in the market seem to be morphing into something more resembling concern. The

Cboe Volatility Index,
for one, has fallen below 30 on Friday, a sign of easing tensions, while the price of WTI crude oil, down about 0.6% Friday, has fallen to $105 a barrel from a multiyear high of $130 Sunday night. Markets have been expecting heavy restrictions on Russian oil, some of which the U.S. has already imposed, and that would reduce the global supply and bring about even more burdensome inflation.

Meanwhile, while money moves into stocks, it’s moving out of safe-haven assets. The price of the 10-year Treasury note was falling Friday, sending its yield up to 2% from a March closing low of 1.73%. 

The picture was mixed overseas. Hong Kong’s

Hang Seng Index
fell 1.6%, under pressure from U.S. regulatory scrutiny on New York-listed Chinese companies. Stocks were more buoyant in Europe, where Frankfurt’s

DAX
surged 3.2%.

Here are eight stocks on the move Friday:

DiDi Global

(ticker: DIDI) saw its U.S.-listed stock slump near 13% in the U.S. premarket, after a report from Bloomberg said the company suspended preparations for its planned stock listing in Hong Kong.

Oracle

(ORCL) slipped 2% in the premarket, even as the software company posted financial results in line with the company’s own forecasts late Thursday, and provided an April quarter profit forecast ahead of Wall Street’s estimates. Shares in German peer

SAP

(SAP) rose 3.2%, with analysts noting that

Oracle
’s
results indicated a positive read-across for the wider sector.

Rivian Automotive

(RIVN) stock dropped 8.4% after the electric-vehicle maker reported a loss of $4.83 a share, wider than estimates of $2, on sales of $54 million, below expectations for $64 million. The company also said it will manufacture 25,000 vehicles this year, below expectations for 50,000. 

DocuSign

(DOCU) stock dropped 16% after the company reported earnings per share that were in line with analysts’ estimates and sales that beat. But the company said it expects full year sales of $2.48 billion, below expectations for $2.61 billion. 

With the price of oil taking a nosedive in that last few days, oil producers and oil service companies saw their stocks fall.

Chevron

(CVX) stock dipped 3%, while

Exxon Mobil

(XOM) saw shares fall 1.7%, and

Halliburton

(HAL) stock dropped 2.5%. 

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@dowjones.com and Jacob Sonenshine at jacob.sonenshine@barrons.com