Dow’s futures rise as stocks rally falls ; SEC all set to tighten screws on speculative trading

Dow Jones futures rose modestly Tuesday night, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. The stock market rally retreated Tuesday, hitting resistance at a natural area after Monday’s big bounce. But the major indexes also found support at natural levels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday slid 144 points to 31,391.52 for a 0.46% drop.

The S&P 500 pulled back 0.81% to 3,870.29. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.7% to 13,358.79.

S&P sector indexes also traded lower during the session, with the exception of materials. Tech and consumer discretionary parts of the market had the toughest showing, with both indexes joining the Nasdaq in declining more than 1%.

Veeva Systems (VEEV), FuboTV (FUBO), Maravai LifeSciences (MRVI) headlined notable earnings reports.

Growth stocks did not have a good day. Zoom Video (ZM) and Target (TGT) suffered nasty reversals following earnings. Tesla (TSLA) rivals Nio (NIO), Xpeng (XPEV), and Li Auto (LI) sold off on news as EV stocks struggle while traditional auto giants General Motors (GM) and Ford (F) make bullish moves.

Stock in Detroit-based Rocket Companies ( RKT) mirrored the look of a Reddit-induced GameStop rally, as shares climbed a shocking 72% in trading shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday. The stock shot up 71% to 41.60, hitting a record high as the heavily shorted mortgage lender became the latest social media-driven squeeze play. It closed at $41.60 Tuesday, up by  $17.30 a share or 71.19%.

Meanwhile, the SEC is all gearing up to tighten its screws further on speculative trading with Gary Gensler, President Biden’s pick, getting ready to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gensler, who testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, was grilled on whether he would scrutinize payment for order flow and game-like tactics used by some online brokerages use to help attract customers to their platforms.

The subject has been the eye of the storm on Capitol Hill over the past two months after the wild swing in trading of GameStop, AMC, and other stocks.

Gensler said he would hope to oversee cryptocurrency regulation, the “gamification” of equity trading, and board diversity if confirmed to lead as Wall Street’s chief regulator.

Asked how the SEC should oversee cryptocurrency and other such up-and-coming technologies, he replied that the responsibility could fall across the government depending on how assets like bitcoin are classified.

On the pandemic, President Biden said late on Tuesday that the U.S. will have a large enough supply of COVID vaccines to vaccinate every adult in the nation by the end of May. That would be two months ahead of schedule.

Texas and Mississippi governors had earlier announced plans to remove mask-wearing mandates and all restrictions on business activity within their states.