Early Look

Monday, June 2, 2025

After recording the best month gains for the S&P 500 since November 2023, U.S. futures are looking lower on this first day of June as a flare-up in global trade tensions between Russia and Ukraine as well as China and the U.S. weighs on US assets. China responded to President Trump on Monday, accusing the US of violating their trade agreement and has vowed to protect its interests. European stocks are also in the red as an escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides investors with another reason to avoid risk assets. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index tumbled -494 points to 37,470, the Shanghai Index dropped -15 points to 3,347, and the Hang Seng Index fell -130 points to 23,157. In Europe, the German DAX is down -150 points to 23,846, while the FTSE 100 is down -9 points to 8,763. Commodity prices are soaring as WTI crude jumps +3.93% or $2.39 to $63.18 per barrel and Brent +3.27% at $64.83 after OPEC+ increased production less than some had feared and geopolitical concerns flared over Ukraine and Iran, while August gold prices +1.67% or $55 to $3,370 an ounce as the U.S. dollar extended last week’s declines-0.53% for the DXY to 98.82 and the euro tops 1.14 vs. the buck. As for last week, the S&P 500 gained 1.88%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.01%, and the Dow climbed 1.6%; for the month the S&P 500 gained 6.15%, the Nasdaq climbed 9.56%, and the Dow climbed 3.94%. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, registers the biggest monthly percentage gain since November 2023, the S&P 500 records strongest May performance since 1990 and the Nasdaq posts its best May percentage gain since 1997.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.34 points, or 0.13%, to 42,270.07
• The Nasdaq Composite slipped -62.11 points, or 0.32%, to 19,113.77
• The Russell 2000 Index declined -8.49 points, or 0.41% to 2,066.29

• 10:00 AM ET                Construction Spending M/M for April
• 10:00 AM ET ISM Manufacturing PMI for May

• Earnings After the Close: ABVX CRDO

• China Caixin Manufacturing PMI for May

• Li Auto (LI) delivered 40,856 vehicles, marking a 16.7% year-over-year increase. This brought the company’s cumulative deliveries to over 1.3 million units. In the first five months of 2025, Li Auto delivered 167,659 vehicles, up 18.73% year-over-year
• NIO (NIO) delivered 23,231 vehicles in May, representing a 13.1% increase year-over-year. The deliveries included 13,270 vehicles from the NIO brand, 6,281 from the ONVO brand, and 3,680 from the FIREFLY brand. Cumulative deliveries reached 760,789 as of May 31, 2025.
• Pony AI (PONY) is partnering with Shenzhen’s largest taxi operator to deploy more than 1,000 robotaxis in the city, enabling the company to achieve large-scale commercialization.
• Shake Shack (SHAK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BTIG on valuation though the firm continues to believe that the company has plenty of margin expansion opportunities.
• XPeng (XPEV) delivered 33,525 vehicles in May, up 230% from last year.

• JetBlue Airways (JBLU) CEO Joanna Geraghty said on Monday the company’s partnership with United Airlines (UAL) would not lead to a merger between the two carriers. The two companies last week announced a collaboration that allows travelers to book flights on both carriers’ websites.
• JB Hunt (JBHT) was downgraded to neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs and keeps $164 tgt.
• Shares of American steel companies (CLF, NUE, STLD) rise South while Korean and Vietnamese steelmakers, major Asian exporters of the metal to the United States fell after U.S. President Donald Trump said late Friday, he would double tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to 50%, which will take effect on June 4.
• Tata Group’s Air India is in discussions with Airbus (EADSY) and Boeing (BA) for a new aircraft order including around 200 extra single-aisle planes, Reuters reports.

• BioNTech SE (BNTX) and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) announced that the companies have entered into an agreement for the global co-development and co-commercialization of BioNTech’s investigational bispecific antibody BNT327 across numerous solid tumor types; BNTX to get $1.5B upfront.
• Moderna (MRNA) shares rise after the FDA approved its newest Covid-19 vaccine over the weekend saying mNEXSPIKE was approved for use in all adults ages 65 and up, as well as individuals ages 12 to 64 with at least one or more underlying risk factors as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• ATAI (ATAI) and Beckley Psytech announced plans to combine in an all-share transaction, in a deal that values Beckley at about $390M; Beckley shareholders will receive about 105 mln new Atai shares, representing roughly 31% of the combined firm.
• Vera Therapeutics, Inc. (VERA) shares jump pre mkt after saying the primary endpoint was met in the ORIGIN Phase 3 trial of atacicept for the treatment of immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) in adults.
• Several updates from American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2025 Annual Meeting this weekend:
• Kura Oncology (KURA) shares rose as KURA and Japan-based Kyowa Kirin say the US FDA accepted marketing application for ziftomenib; the drug, if approved, could be used to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Ziftomenib is a potential first-of-its-kind treatment for this aggressive form of leukemia.
• Merck’s (MRK) combination of petosemtamab (developed by Merus) and pembrolizumab showed early clinical efficacy as a first-line treatment for recurrent/metastatic HNSCC, with phase 2 data suggesting it could be a best-in-class therapy.
• Pfizer (PFE) and Arvinas (ARVN) experimental treatment delayed progression of breast cancer by more than three months compared to AstraZeneca’s (AZN) Faslodex in patients with a specific gene mutation, according to trial results announced on Saturday at ASCO.

• Citizens reiterate an Outperform rating and $95 price target on Roku (ROKU) after tracking the share of Roku TVs presented on the first page of search results for TVs under $500. With Roku reaching more than 50% of U.S. broadband households and the Roku TV OS continuing to be the top-selling TV OS in the U.S.