A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Rise Ahead Of Earnings

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade ahead of earnings from several companies. The manufacturing PMI for July is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 31 points to 18,467.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 3.75 points to 2,162.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 6.75 points to 4,645.00.

Oil prices traded mixed as Brent crude futures rose 0.13 percent to trade at $46.26 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also dropped 0.04 percent to trade at $44.73 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.19 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.10 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 0.10 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.35 percent, while French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.30 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.09 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.16 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.86 percent and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.33 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Raymond James downgraded Twitter Inc TWTR from Outperform to Market Perform.

Twitter shares fell 2.23 percent to $17.98 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• Moody's Corporation MCO announced a 2.4 percent drop in net income attributable to the shareholders for the second quarter. However, earnings were in line with the Street analysts' expectations. Revenue, which advanced 1.2 percent, exceeded the Street predictions. The company also reiterated its full year earnings forecast, but expects to achieve towards the lower end of it. To read the full news, click here.



• Pandora Media Inc P reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its second quarter, but the company missed analysts’ sales expectations. Active listeners also declined 1.6 percent year-over-year to 78.1 million at the end of the quarter. To read the full news, click here.



• American Airlines Group Inc AAL reported results for its second quarter results. American Airlines said it earned $1.68 per share in the second quarter on revenue of $10.363 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.56 per share on revenue of $10.27 billion. To read the full news, click here.



• Starbucks Corporation SBUX posted in-line earnings for its fiscal third quarter, but the company’s revenue fell short of estimates. To read the full news, click here.