US Stock Futures Slip Ahead Of Consumer Sentiment Report - Ford Motor (NYSE:F), Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Pre-open movers

US stock futures fell in early pre-market trading, after J.P. Morgan Chase & Co

JPM

reported downbeat quarterly earnings. The producer price index for March will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for April will be released at 9:55 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 46 points to 16,064.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.50 points to 1,821.60. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 18 points to 3,462.00.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.58%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 1.19% and STOXX Europe 600 Index slipping 1.39%. German DAX 30 index dropped 1.45% and French CAC 40 Index fell 1.07%. Asian markets ended lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average tumbled 2.38 points, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.79%, China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.18% and India's BSE Index dropped 0.38%. China's consumer price index climbed 2.4% y/y in March.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded Ford Motor Company

from “hold” to “buy.” The target price for Ford Motor has been raised from $18.50 to $19. Ford Motor's shares fell 0.44% to $15.77 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

Merck MRK today announced interim results from the ongoing C-WORTHy study, a multi-arm Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of an all-oral, once-daily regimen combining MK-5172, an investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3/4A protease inhibitor, and MK-8742, an investigational HCV NS5A replication complex inhibitor, among patients with chronic HCV Genotype 1 infection (GT1). To read the full news, click here.
Gilead Sciences GILD today announced data from two Phase 2 studies and a compassionate access study in which a regimen containing once-daily Sovaldi® (sofosbuvir) 400 mg was administered for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with advanced liver disease. To read the full news, click here.
Relypsa RLYP today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,591,836 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $24.50 per share for gross proceeds of approximately $88 million. To read the full news, click here.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co JPM reported a 19% drop in its first-quarter profit. J.P. Morgan's quarterly profit declined to $5.3 billion, or $1.28 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $6.53 billion, or $1.59 per share. To read the full news, click here.

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