A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Mixed; Apple, Alphabet Earnings In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings reports from several companies. Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Apple Inc. AAPL and Alphabet Inc GOOGL will release earnings after the closing bell. The Challenger job-cut report for January is schedule for release at 7:30 a.m. ET. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week and nonfarm productivity for the fourth quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The manufacturing PMI for January is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET. Data on construction spending for December and the ISM manufacturing index for January will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 26 points to 26,110.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 3.25 points to 2,829.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 4 points to 6,966.50.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.81 percent to trade at $69.45 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 0.71 percent to trade at $65.19 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.52 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.42 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 0.25 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.02 percent, while French CAC 40 Index rose 0.44 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.68 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.75 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.97 percent and India’s BSE Sensex dropped 0.16 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at RBC Capital upgraded eBay Inc EBAY from Sector Perform to Outperform.

eBay shares rose 10.40 percent to $44.80 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• CIGNA Corporation CI reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter and issued a strong FY 2018 earnings guidance.



• DowDuPont Inc DWDP reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.



• Microsoft Corporation MSFT reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results.



• Facebook, Inc. FB reported better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings. December monthly active users were up 14 percent year-over-year to 1.4 billion. The company also reported the purchase of Lifetouch for $825 million.