A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Fall Ahead Of Morgan Stanley Earnings

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from Morgan Stanley MS, Honeywell International Inc. HON and Philip Morris International Inc. PM. Microsoft Corporation MSFT will release earnings after the closing bell. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for July will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The index of leading economic indicators for June is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET. New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams is set to speak in New York at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 51 points to 27,180, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 4.5 points to 2,980.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 21.5 points to 7,864.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1% to trade at $64.97 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.7% to trade at $58.03 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.9%, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.3% and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.8%. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.4%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.4%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.97%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.46%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.04% and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.77%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Citigroup downgraded Lear Corporation LEA from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $188 to $144.

Lear shares fell 2 percent to close at $127.17 on Wednesday.

Breaking News

• UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter.
• eBay Inc EBAY reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter on Wednesday.
• SunTrust Banks, Inc. STI reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.
• Netflix, Inc. NFLX reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed views. The company said 2.7 million paid memberships added during the quarter, down from 5.5 million year-over-year.