A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade after the Dow Jones dropped around 100 points in the previous session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Exelon Corporation EXC and Novavax, Inc. NVAX.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 8:45 a.m. ET. Data on wholesale inventories for March will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

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Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 441 points to 32,368.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 67.75 points to 4,051.75. Futures for the Nasdaq index fell 251 points to 12,444.75.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1.6% to trade at $110.56 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 1.7% to trade at $107.88 a barrel. The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 5 to 557 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 83,581,710 with around 1,024,540 deaths. India reported a total of at least 43,105,400 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 30,564,530 cases.

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A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 1.5%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.6%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 1.4%, while German DAX dropped 1.1%. French current account deficit narrowed to EUR 3.2 billion in March from a revised EUR 0.94 billion a month ago, while trade deficit increased to EUR 12.4 billion from 10.4 EUR billion.

Asian markets traded mostly lower today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.5% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.09%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.2% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.7%. Chinese trade surplus widened to $51.12 billion in April from $40.89 billion in the year-ago month. The au Jibun Bank Japanese Services PMI rose to 50.7 in April from a final reading of 49.4 in March.

Broker Recommendation

Morgan Stanley upgraded The Progressive Corporation PGR from Underweight to Equal-Weight and announced a $115 price target.

Progressive shares rose 0.2% to $109.65 in after-hours trading.

Check out this: Executives Buy Around $85M Of 4 Stocks

Breaking News

• Coty Inc. COTY reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter and raised its FY22 adjusted EPS guidance.
• Allakos Inc. ALLK posted a loss of $3.60 per share for the first quarter, versus a year-ago loss of $1.04 per share.
• Holly Energy Partners, L.P. HEP reported upbeat results for its first quarter.
• Westport Fuel Systems WPRT swung to a profit of $0.05 per share for the first quarter, versus a year-ago loss of $0.02 per share.

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