A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Down; Jobless Claims In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 17 points to 18,184.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures slipped 2.25 points to 2,151.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 3.50 points to 4,869.75.

Oil prices traded mixed as Brent crude futures gained 0.12 percent to trade at $51.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 0.18 percent to trade at $49.74 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.19 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.31 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.29 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.02 percent, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.32 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.47 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.69 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.21 percent and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.41 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Leerink Swann downgraded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALNY from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered the price target from $107.00 to $40.00.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals shares fell 42.96 percent to $40.10 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• On a week when much of Wall Street had its attention on the company and stock, Twitter Inc TWTR shares are trading down about 16 percent. It seems Alphabet Inc GOOGL and its Google are the latest to drop out as interested parties to a possible takeover of the company. "Google does not currently plan to make a bid for Twitter," according to Recode's Kara Swisher and Kurt Wagner. To read the full news, click here.



• Cato Corp. CATO cut its earnings forecast for fiscal third quarter. Same-store sales dropped 9 percent, while total sales slipped 8 percent to $76.2 million for the month. To read the full news, click here.



• Lam Research Corporation LRCX reported the termination of acquisition deal with KLA-Tencor Corp KLAC. To read the full news, click here.



• Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM reported in-line earnings for its third quarter, but revenue of missed estimates by $200 million. To read the full news, click here.