A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Drop; Big Tech Earnings In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, after recording a rise in the prior session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Apple Inc. AAPL, Alphabet Inc GOOGL, Facebook, Inc. FB, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Ford Motor Company F and Procter & Gamble Co PG. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week and Gross Domestic Product for the second quarter will be released at 8:30 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 4,426,980 with around 150,710 deaths. Brazil confirmed over 2,552,260 cases, while India reported a total of at least 1,581,960 confirmed cases.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 261 points to 26,179 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell33.90 points to 3,218.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 139.50 points to 10,534.75.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1% to trade at $43.66 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 1.3% to trade at $40.74 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled to release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.6% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 1%. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 1.4%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 2% and German DAX 30 declined 0.8%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.26%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.69%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.23% and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.6%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at JP Morgan upgraded Celanese Corporation CE from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $83 to $110.

Celanese shares rose 4.2% to close at $97.16 on Wednesday.

Breaking News

• QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter and issued strong forecast for the current quarter, after resolving its licensing dispute with Huawei Technologies.
• Credit Suisse Group AG CS reported its financial results for the second quarter on Thursday, posting a net income of $1.27 billion in the quarter, up 24% from the year-ago quarter.
• Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL reported upbeat results for its second quarter and issued a strong guidance.
• Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. SWK reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.