A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Manufacturing Data

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mostly higher in early pre-market trade. The Markit manufacturing PMI for July will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET. The ISM manufacturing index for July and construction spending report for June will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 24 points to 18,386.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 2.25 points to 2,170.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 4 points to 4,730.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1.45 percent to trade at $42.90 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 1.39 percent to trade at $41.02 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.84 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.55 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.06 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.31 percent, while French CAC 40 Index declined 0.66 percent. Eurozone manufacturing PMI declined to 52.0 in July, versus 52.8 in June. U.K. manufacturing PMI dropped to 48.2 in July, versus 52.4 in June.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.40 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.09 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.87 percent and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.17 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded Dollar Tree, Inc. DLTR from Hold to Buy.

Dollar Tree shares rose 0.18 percent to close at $96.29 on Friday.

Breaking news

• Loews Corporation L announced a net loss for the three-month period ended June 30, 2016. Its revenue also dipped 3.6 percent hurt by weak results from Diamond Offshore. To read the full news, click here.



• Tesla Motors Inc TSLA announced plans to acquire SolarCity Corp SCTY for $2.6 billion in stock. /li>
   
• Transocean Ltd. RIG and Transocean Partners LLC RIGP revealed Monday they have struck a deal whereby the former would buy all the outstanding units of the latter in a share-for-unit merger transaction. As a result, Transocean Partners would get 1.1427 shares of the company for every unit held. To read the full news, click here.