A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street; Crude Oil Rises 1%

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade after closing mostly flat in the previous session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Advance Auto Parts, Inc. AAP, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. ZM and XPeng Inc. XPEV.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for April is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. The index is expected to slow to 0.13 in April from 0.44 in March. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 127 points to 31,340.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 17 points to 3,916.50. Futures for the Nasdaq index surged 47.25 points to 11,888.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.2% to trade at $113.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 1.1% to trade at $111.45 a barrel. The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 13 to 576 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 85,004,430 with around 1,028,920 deaths. India reported a total of at least 43,138,390 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 30,791,220 cases.

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A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1%. The French CAC 40 Index rose 0.6%, while German DAX climbed 1.2%. The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany increased to a three-month high of 93 in May versus a revised reading of 91.9 in April.

Asian markets traded mostly higher today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.98%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.18% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.01%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.05% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex jumped 0.8%. The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong declined to a three-month low of 1.3% in March from 1.7% in the prior month.

Broker Recommendation

Piper Sandler downgraded Dow Inc. DOW from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the price target from $84 to $78.

Dow shares fell 1.8% to $66.87 in pre-market trading.

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Breaking News

• Broadcom Inc. AVGO is looking to buy cloud computing company VMware, Inc. VMW, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
• Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk-owned SpaceX is looking to raise $1.725 billion in new capital that could lift the private space firm's valuation to $127 billion, CNBC reported on Sunday, citing a company-wide email.
• Terra LUNA/USD founder Do Kwon has refuted allegations that he has unfulfilled tax obligations in Korea and has said that dissolving operations in the country days before the TerraUSD UST/USD de-pegging event was “purely coincidental.”
• Apple Inc AAPL is reportedly telling some of its manufacturers that due to persisting stringent COVID norms across China, it now wants to boost production outside of the country, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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