A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Down Ahead Of Fed Minutes

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade after the Dow Jones tumbled more than 260 points in the previous session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Target Corporation TGT, Lowe`s Companies Inc LOW and Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.

Federal Reserve Governor Randal Quarles and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard will speak at 10:00 a.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 165 points to 33,831.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 26.75 points at 4,096.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 148 points to 13,064.00.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 32,997,500 with around 587,210 deaths. India reported a total of at least 25,496,330 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 15,732,830 cases.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1.4% to trade at $67.78 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 1.4% to trade at $64.56 a barrel. The API said US crude inventories increased by 620,000 barrels in the week ended May 14. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.8% and STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 1.4%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 1.2%, London’s FTSE 100 declined 1.3% while German DAX 30 dipped 1.6%. The Eurozone’s consumer price inflation rate was confirmed at 1.6% year-over-year in April, while new car registrations in the European Union jumped 218.6% year-over-year in April. Producer prices in the UK increased 3.9% year-over-year in April, while UK’s annual inflation rate rose to 1.5% in April from 0.7% in March.

Asian markets traded lower today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.28%, while China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.51%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.9% and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.4%. Industrial production in Japan increased 1.7% in March. Australia's wage price index increased 1.5% year-over-year in the first quarter, while Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment dropped to 113.1 in May from 118.8 in April.

Broker Recommendation

Wells Fargo initiated coverage on Humana Inc. HUM with an Equal-Weight rating and announced a price target of $472.

Humana shares fell 3.1% to $435.48 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. TTWO reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter. For fiscal 2022, the company said it expects profit of $228 million to $257 million and revenue of $3.14 billion to $3.24 billion.
• Apple Inc AAPL is gearing up to launch a broad range of Mac laptops and desktops with faster indigenous processors and new designs as it boosts efforts to replace Intel Corp INTC chips with its own, according to a Bloomberg report.
• Container Store Group Inc TCS reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.
• Bitcoin (BTC) traded below the psychologically important $40,000 mark after three months in the early hours of Wednesday as the cryptocurrency sell-off fuelled by Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk’s remarks last week deepened.

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