Pre-Markets Buy Back In Ahead of JOLTS, NIKE Earnings
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026
Pre-market futures are up at this hour, with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all up right around +1%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 +1.5%. We’re still underwater through the past five trading days, however, after a heavy selling period before last weekend. But an absence of new major calamities, either overseas or here on the homestead, have helped investors gather the nerve to dip a toe back in the water. Not to mention bargain hunters tend to like buying in when markets have sold off -10%.
As it is the last trading day of the quarter, we fully expect to snap a three-quarter winning streak on the major indexes. Despite climbing in early trading, March remains on track to be the worst-performing month for the stock market in four years. Spot oil prices continue to inch up: $104 on WTI, $117 on Brent crude.
Case-Shiller Home Prices Continue to Flatten
Case-Shiller Home Prices for January (not a delayed report; it’s always this late) made it eight straight months without nationwide home price growth, coming in -0.1% for the month. Year over year, +1.2% is 10 basis points (bps) below expectations, 20 bps lower than the December tally.
For the month, New York City has overtaken Chicago as the highest home-price-growth gainers, +4.9% versus +4.6%, followed by Cleveland at +3.6%. The post-Covid re-migration to urban centers appears to be continuing albeit somewhat quietly. Tampa brought up the rear once again for the month, -2.5% home price growth.
Earnings Reports Today: MKC, NIKE & More
Spices and condiment giant McCormick & Co. MKC outpaced estimates on both top and bottom lines it its fiscal Q1 report ahead of today’s opening bell. Earnings of 66 cents per share on revenues of $1.87 billion were comfortably ahead of the 61 cents per share and $1.78 billion expected, respectively. But slimming margins, flat volumes and a new deal involving buying Unilever’s food division have sent shares of MKC down -6% in early trading.
After today’s close, we get a decent sample of off-season earnings reports, including NIKE NKE, RH RH — formerly Restoration Hardware — and Calvin Klein/Tommy Hilfiger parent PVH PVH — formerly Phillips-Van Heusen. It’s been a rough stretch for NIKE and RH year to date, with NIKE earnings still looking to come in -46.3% per share below a year ago, while RH appears ready for a rebound: +39.87%. PVH expects +0.9% earnings growth and +2% on revenues.
Economic Prints After the Open
“Jobs Week” officially kicks off later this morning, when the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for February expects to keep in line with the previous +6.95 million job openings. Over the past 12 months, we’ve been in a range of +7.31 million openings last May and +6.55 million in seasonal-job-oriented December 2025.
The Chicago Business Barometer for March is expected to tack down for the first time in four months, to 55.1 from 57.7 reported last month. That growth in February was a surprise to the upside; however, developments in the present month may point lower, inasmuch as businesses consider things like higher oil prices and scant supply of petroleum-based products. That said, maybe we can wring another positive surprise today.
The Consumer Confidence Index from The Conference Board also hits the tape this morning for March, also expected to tick down to 87.5 from 91.2 in February. Last month also saw an ease to pessimism as Chicago businesses did, but again we see lots of obstacles in the way of sustained optimism in our current outlook.
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Zacks’ Research Chief Names “Stock Most Likely to Double”
Our team of experts has just released the 5 stocks with the greatest probability of gaining +100% or more in the coming months. Of those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian highlights the one stock set to climb highest.
This top pick is a little-known satellite-based communications firm. Space is projected to become a trillion dollar industry, and this company’s customer base is growing fast. Analysts have forecasted a major revenue breakout in 2025. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Hims & Hers Health, which shot up +209%.
Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners Up
NIKE, Inc. (NKE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (MKC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
PVH Corp. (PVH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
RH (RH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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