A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Edge Lower Ahead Of Earnings Reports, Fed Meeting

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded slightly lower in early pre-market trade, after recording a rise in the earlier session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Mcdonald's Corp MCD, Pfizer Inc. PFE and 3M Co MMM and Starbucks Corporation SBUX. The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to begin its two-day policy meeting today. The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index for May is scheduled to release at 9:00 a.m. ET, while the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index and the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index for July will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 4,294,770 with around 148,050 deaths. Brazil confirmed over 2,442,370 cases, while India reported a total of at least 1,480,070 confirmed cases.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 63 points to 26,421 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 7.50 points to 3,224.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 36 points to 10,639.25.

Oil prices traded mixed as Brent crude futures rose 0.1% to trade at $43.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $41.43 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.8% and STOXX Europe 600 Index climbing 0.3%. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.5%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.1% and German DAX 30 gained 0.4%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.26%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.69%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.71% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 1.1%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at JP Morgan upgraded Avery Dennison Corp AVY from Underweight to Neutral and raised the price target from $110 to $115.

Avery Dennison shares fell 3.8% to close at $115.86 on Monday.

Breaking News

• Brown & Brown, Inc. BRO reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.
• Pfizer Inc. PFE and BioNTech SE BNTX commenced a Phase 2/3 safety and efficacy clinical study to evaluate a single nucleoside-modified messenger RNA candidate from their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program, against SARS-CoV-2.
• Private equity firm Sycamore Partners is leading a bidding war to acquire bankrupt J.C. Penney Company, Inc, the New York Post reported Monday.
• F5 Networks, Inc. FFIV reported upbeat results for its third quarter and issued a strong profit outlook for the current quarter.