A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Earnings, Economic Data

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings reports from several companies.

Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week, the Producer Price Index for January and retail sales for December will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data on business inventories for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak in Newark, DE at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 90 points to 25,578.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 7.5 points to 2,757.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 27.5 points to 7,043.50.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.5 percent to trade at $64.56 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 1.1 percent to trade at $54.50 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 higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.54 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.36 percent and German DAX 30 index gained 0.2 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.33 percent, while French CAC 40 Index gained 0.6 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.02 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 0.23 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.05 percent and India’s BSE Sensex dropped 0.99 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at William Blair downgraded NetApp Inc. NTAP from Outperform to Market Perform.

NetApp shares fell 7.8 percent to $62.09 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Tempur Sealy International Inc TPX reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.
• Quest Diagnostics Inc DGX reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter.
• The Coca-Cola Co KO reported in-line earnings for its fourth quarter. The company expects FY19 organic sales growth of 4 percent year over year.
• Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter. The company issued strong third-quarter guidance and expects sales growth of 4-6 percent year-over-year. Cisco also added $15 billion to its buyback plan.