A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Mixed On First Trading Day Of 2018

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade. The manufacturing PMI for December is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 29 points to 24,768.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 5.75 points to 2,681.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 7.50 points to 6,416.25.

Oil prices traded mostly flat as Brent crude futures fell 0.01 percent to trade at $66.86 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 0.01 percent to trade at $60.43 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.16 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.54 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.75 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.45 percent, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.87 percent.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.99 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.24 percent and India’s BSE Sensex slipped 0.01 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Macquarie upgraded Walt Disney Co DIS from Neutral to Outperform.

Disney shares rose 0.90 percent to $108.48 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• Commercial Metals Company CMC announced plans to acquire certain U.S. rebar assets from Gerdau SA (ADR) GGB for $600 million in cash.



• DPW Holdings DPW disclosed that its subsidiary, CooliSys Technologies Inc., agreed to acquire Enertec from Micronet Enertec Technologies Inc MICT for $5.2 million in cash.



• Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc KTOS reported that it has won a $93 million Contract for unmanned aerial drone systems from the US Army.



• Imperva Inc IMPV named Mike Burns as CFO.