A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Tumble Ahead Of Economic Reports

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on retail sales for November will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while data on industrial production for November will be released at 9:15 a.m. ET. The flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index for December is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET, while data on business inventories for October will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 210 points to 24,378, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 22.50 points to 2,627.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 61.75 points to 6,715.75.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.86 percent to trade at $60.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures declined 0.65 percent to trade at $52.24 a barrel. The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.11 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.87 percent and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.87 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.69 percent, while French CAC 40 Index declined 1.03 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 2.02 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.62 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipped 1.53 percent and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.09 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Nomura downgraded Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO from Buy to Neutral.

Cisco shares fell 2.15 percent to $46.45 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• LVMH announced plans to purchase Belmond Ltd. BEL for $25 per share in cash.
• Merck & Co., Inc. MRK reported the purchase of Antelliq Group for €2.1 billion in cash and assumption of €1.15 billion in company debt .
• Scientific Games Corp SGMS disclosed a settlement in Shuffle Tech litigation. Scientific games will pay $151.5 million.
• Tel-Instrument Electronics Corp. TIK disclosed a $615,000 international order for the T-47/M5 Mode 5 test set.