Coffee With Greta: Stocks Fall Ahead Of Early Weekend

DJIA Futures: -17 (-0.1%)

SPX Futures: -4 (-0.1%)

NASDAQ Futures: -44 (-0.3%)

Good morning friends!

Futures are falling as traders assess the health of the U.S. labor market and economy.

Let’s get right to it!

Weekly Jobless Claims Drop After Large Revision

Weekly jobless claims were higher than expected last week despite a large drop. 

The Labor Department reported 228,000 Americans filed initial unemployment claims. 

That was down by 18,000 from the previous week, which was revised higher by 48,000 to 246,000. 

Last week’s total was higher than expectations for 200,000. 

Continuing claims rose by 6,000 to 1.82 million in the week ending March 25.

Although the official March jobs report comes out tomorrow morning, the stock market will be closed in observance of Good Friday.

The report is expected to show the U.S. economy added 238,000 jobs last month with the unemployment rate unchanged at 3.6%.

Costco Drops On Weak March Sales

Costco (COST) shares are falling 3.2% ahead of the open after the retailer reported weak sales numbers for March. 

Same-store sales decreased 1.1% annually last month to $21.71 billion. 

That drop is an indicator consumers may be pulling back on spending due to uncertainty about the economy. 

But part of the decline was also due to lower gas prices. 

Costco estimates those lower prices impacted same-store sales growth by about 2%. 

Excluding the effect of gas prices and foreign exchange rates, same-store sales rose 2.6% in March vs the 5% gain in February.

Levi Drops Despite Earnings Beat

Levi Strauss (LEVI) shares are down 3.9% in premarket trade after reporting fiscal Q1 results and reaffirming its full-year guidance. 

Here’s how the denim retailer’s results compared to analysts’ expectations:

• Adjusted EPS: $0.34 vs $0.32 expected
• Revenue: $1.689 billion vs $1.623 billion expected

The CFO said Levi was able to reduce inventory levels during the quarter. 

He also reaffirmed the company’s previous outlook saying, “We are reaffirming our annual revenue and EPS guidance reflecting a cautious outlook on the macro-environment though we remain excited about the momentum in our DTC and international businesses.”

That forecast is for full-year adjusted EPS of $1.30 to $1.40 and revenue of $6.3 billion to $6.4 billion.

Oil On Track For Weekly Gain

Oil prices are higher this morning and on track for their third straight weekly gain after OPEC+’s surprise production cut. 

West Texas Intermediate crude futures are up 0.1% to just under $81 bbl while Brent crude futures are up 0.2% to over $85 bbl.

Both contracts have gained more than 6% this week after the OPEC+ vote last weekend. 

But concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy have kept a lid on price gains. 

In Case You Missed It

• Business activity in the U.S. services sector slowed sharply in March. The Institute for Supply Management’s services PMI dropped nearly 4 points to a three-month low of 51.2% last month. That was lower than economists’ expectations for 54.3%. New orders sank 10.4 points to 52.2%, which was the lowest reading since the end of 2022. But inflation pressures cooled. The prices paid index fell 6.1 points to 59.5%, the smallest reading since July 2020.