A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Rise Ahead Of Earnings, Jobless Claims Data

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade after the Dow Jones tumbled more than 200 points in the prior session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Macy's, Inc. M, Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA, Kohl's Corporation KSS and Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT.

Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week will be released ay 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts expect jobless claims declining to 261,000 for the November 13 week from 267,000 in the previous week. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for November is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the index of leading economic indicators for October is scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for November will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 7:30 a.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 9:30 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak at 2:00 p.m. ET, while San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly will speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 69 points to 35,936.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 15 points to 4,701.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 89.75 points to 16,401.25.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 48,287,920 with around 787,980 deaths. India reported a total of at least 34,478,510 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 21,977,660 cases.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $79.94 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.8% to trade at $77.73 a barrel. US crude oil inventories dropped 2.101 million barrels in the week ending November 12, following a 1.001 million rise in the prior period, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. The EIA’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mixed today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.2% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 0.1%. The French CAC 40 Index rose 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% while German DAX 30 gained 0.2%. Passenger car registrations in the European Union tumbled 30.3% year-over-year to 665,001 units in October.

Asian markets traded mostly lower today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.30%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.29% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.47%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1%, while India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.4%.

Broker Recommendation

UBS initiated coverage on Square, Inc. SQ with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $322.

Square shares rose 1.4% to $235.00 in pre-market trading.

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Breaking News

• NVIDIA Corporation NVDA reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter, driven by record revenues in Gaming, Data Center and Professional Visualization segments. The company also issued a strong forecast for the fourth quarter.
• Toyota Motor Corporation TM unveiled the U.S. production model for its all-electric bZ4X.
• Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also issued weal sales forecast for the current quarter.
• Facebook Inc FB, which rebranded as Meta Platforms Inc, showed off “haptic gloves” recently and a California-based startup, HaptX, says that the Mark Zuckerberg-led company’s appear to be “substantively identical” to its patented technology.

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