A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Fed Speakers

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Data on factory orders for January will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley is set to speak in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands at 7:30 a.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak in New York City at 7:00 p.m. ET. Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan is set to speak in Houston at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 159 points to 25,023.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 13.25 points to 2,731.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 42 points to 6,921.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 2.25 percent to trade at $65.82 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 0.56 percent to trade at $62.92 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.57 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 0.74 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 1.16 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 1 percent, while French CAC 40 Index rose 0.76 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.79 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 2.09 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1 percent and India’s BSE Sensex slipped 1.27 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at RBC Capital upgraded PPL Corp PPL from Sector Perform to Outperform.

PPL shares rose 2.13 percent to close at $28.32 on Monday.

Breaking news

• Ciena Corporation CIEN reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.



• Target Corporation TGT reported downbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.



• Ascena Retail Group Inc ASNA posted a wider-than-expected loss for its second quarter and issued weak third-quarter earnings guidance.



• G1 Therapeutics Inc GTHX disclosed a 3 million common stock offering.