US Stock Futures Drop Ahead Of GDP, Jobless Claims Data; Micron, Nike Earnings In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade on Thursday after the Dow Jones jumped more than 500 points in the previous session. The Bank of England stepped in to take action to stabilize spiking U.K. gilt yields. The Dow and the S&P 500 snapped a six-session losing streak, but the 30-stock index is still 19.7% down from its 52-week high, while the S&P 500 is down around 22.8% from its record high level.

Gross Domestic Product report for the second quarter is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. The third estimate of Q2 GDP, at a minus 0.6% consensus, is likely to show no change versus the second estimate. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Jobless claims are projected to come in at 218,000 for the September 24 week compared to 213,000 in the previous week.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly will speak at 4:45 p.m. ET.

Investors are also awaiting earnings results from Micron Technology, Inc. MU, NIKE, Inc. NKE, CarMax, Inc. KMX and Worthington Industries, Inc. WOR.

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Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 264 points to 29,486.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 37 points to 3,695.00. Futures for the Nasdaq index fell 135.25 points to 11,420.50.

Commodities

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $87.71 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $81.84 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Gold futures fell 1% to trade at $1,653.70 an ounce, while silver traded down 1.6% at $18.57 an ounce on Thursday.

A Peek Into Global Markets

Europe Markets

European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 1.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.5% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.5%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 1.5%, while German DAX dropped 1.6%.

The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone dropped by 3.8 points to -28.8 in September, while economic sentiment indicator fell 3.6 points from a month ago to 93.7. Industrial producer prices in Italy climbed 40.1% year-over-year in August, while Spanish consumer price inflation eased to 9.0% year-over-year in September. UK car production surged 34% year-over-year to 49,901 units in August.

Asia-Pacific Markets

Asian markets traded mixed today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.95%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.49% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.13%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.4%, while India’s S&P BSE SENSEX fell 0.2%.

China's current account surplus widened to $77.5 billion in the second quarter from a year-ago surplus of $45.5 billion.

Broker Recommendation

Evercore ISI Group upgraded First Solar, Inc. FSLR from In-Line to Outperform and raised the price target from $88 to $150.

First Solar shares rose 0.9% to $137.40 in pre-market trading.

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Breaking News

Vail Resorts, Inc. MTN reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its fourth quarter, while sales topped estimates.
Altus Power, Inc. AMPS priced its 7 million share secondary underwritten public offering of class A common stock at $11.50 per share.
Tesla Inc. TSLA added Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia to its Board of Directors with effect from September 25.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) has been on a buying spree as it loaded up over 5.98 million shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation OXY over the last three days valued at over $352 million, according to a regulatory filing.