5 Things to Watch on
March 4, 2026

U.S. private payrolls rose +63K in February, beating expectations and rebounding from January’s weak reading, according to ADP. Hiring was concentrated in education/health services and construction, while professional/business services saw declines. ADP also noted that pay premiums for workers switching jobs fell to a record low, suggesting the labor market remains uneven despite the pickup in hiring.

Apple (AAPL) rolled out new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models with its latest M5 chips on Tuesday, its biggest Mac refresh in over a year, as it looks to revive demand after holiday quarter Mac sales fell nearly -7%. Prices rose across the board, with the MacBook Air starting at $1,099 (up from $999) and the 16-inch MacBook Pro M5 Max reaching $3,899, driven by tighter memory supply favoring AI data center customers. The central pitch is on-device AI performance, with AAPL claiming the new Pro processes LLM prompts nearly four times faster than M4 machines without sacrificing battery life.

CrowdStrike (CRWD) is flat in premarket trading after Q4 revenue came in at $1.31B, up +23% YoY and ahead of the $1.3B consensus, with EPS of $1.12 beating the $1.10 estimate. FY2027 revenue guidance of $5.87B-$5.93B and Q1 guidance of $1.4B both came in modestly ahead of Street expectations. CEO George Kurtz framed CRWD as an AI beneficiary, citing "elevated demand" for its Falcon platform as AI is weaponizing adversaries with greater speed and sophistication. Shares remain under pressure on the year, down -16.5%, reflecting broader concerns that AI could disrupt traditional software despite management's bullish positioning.

CoreWeave (CRWV) is up over +6% in premarket trading after signing a cloud infrastructure deal with AI search company Perplexity. Perplexity will use CRWV's data centers, powered by Nvidia (NVDA) GB200 NVL72 clusters, to scale its AI inference workloads. The deal is aimed at diversifying CRWV's customer base beyond its largest clients, with CEO Mike Intrator framing it as part of a broader shift toward emerging AI leaders adopting the platform.

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) is down more than -7% in premarket trading as a softer near-term outlook overshadowed solid Q4 results. The retailer posted record revenue of $1.67B (+5% YoY) and EPS of $3.68, beating estimates and marking its 13th consecutive quarter of sales growth, though operating margins compressed. CEO Horowitz highlighted a third straight year of double-digit operating margins, and $619M in operating cash flow, which helped fund share repurchases equal to 11% of shares outstanding. However, Q1 guidance of $1.25 EPS on $1.1B in revenue came in below expectations, overshadowing otherwise in-line FY26 guidance for +4% sales growth.