Automakers, Job Openings, Stonks: 3 Things to Watch By Investing.com

By Liz Moyer

Investing — Spring is bringing on the reopening trade, lifting stock markets to fresh highs on Monday after positive economic data.

Investors placed optimistic trades on a wide range of travel and leisure stocks, from airlines to cruise operators, casinos and movie theaters.

Tech also played its role in the record-setting day, as the sector’s giants staged a comeback ahead of quarterly earnings season.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) parent Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) got a nudge higher by none other than the Supreme Court, which ruled 6-2 in its favor in saying it did not infringe on Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s Java software.

As the Biden administration prepares for a fight on its $2 trillion infrastructure plan, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for a global minimum corporate tax “to ensure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in public goods and respond to crises.”

Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:

1. Focus on automakers?

Tim Cook hinted at the possibility of an Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) autonomous vehicle in a recent interview, without outright confirming the much-rumored idea. That would be another competitor for Tesla as old-school names like General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) also set their sights on electric vehicles and autonomous technology. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) beat expectations for first quarter deliveries.

“There’s lots of things you can do with autonomy. And we’ll see what Apple does,” Cook said in an interview with Kara Swisher on the ‘Sway’ podcast released Monday. Asked if Apple was working on such a car itself or a technology within it, Cook declined to comment.

Automakers reported strong vehicle sales in the first quarter, boosted by consumer spending, helping to overcome the negative effects of chip shortages.

2. Jobs Jobs Jobs

Job openings for February are released Tuesday at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT). Analysts tracked by Investing.com expect a reading of 6.99 million, which would be up from 6.917 million the prior month.

A strong report would follow the Labor Department’s strong report Friday that nonfarm payrolls surged by 916,000 jobs last month, the biggest gain since last August. 

3. Meme stonks in share sales

GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME)’s share sales plans have changed. It’s now going to sell up to $1 billion of stock instead of only $100 million, as it takes advantage of a surging price after a retail-driven rally this year. Its shares fell nearly 14% on Monday but erased most of that loss in the afternoon.

Investors don’t usually like being diluted, but they don’t always act like it. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) shares jumped 12% on Monday a few days after it said it would sell another 500 million shares. The theater chain operator got a nice boost from an analyst upgrade to buy after a better than anticipated box office showing for “Godzilla vs. Kong.”