US equity futures rebounded from an overnight selloff even as European shares wiped out their gains for the year early on Thursday, soured by Wednesday’s furious sell-off which sent the S&P down 2.6% in its worst rout since October, exacerbated by pandemic lockdowns with no end in sight and as retail traders piled into heavily-shorted companies, sparking losses at hedge funds who are forced to sell their favorite longs and causing turmoil in parts of the market.
Apple reported holiday-quarter sales and profit that beat Wall Street expectations, however, shares of the iPhone maker fell 1.8% premarket. Facebook dipped 0.6% as it warned Apple’s impending privacy changes could hurt revenue by interfering with ad targeting even after soundly beating quarterly revenue estimates. Tesla lost 4.4% after the electric-car maker reported disappointing fourth-quarter results and failed to provide a clear target for 2021 vehicle deliveries. Southwest Airlines’s shares fell 0.2% after the airline posted its first annual loss since 1972 and said it was facing stalled demand in January and February on high levels of COVID-19 cases.
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