A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Mostly Up Ahead Of The Labor Department's JOLTS Report

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mostly up in early pre-market trade. The NFIB small business optimism index for March is scheduled for release at 6:00 a.m. ET. The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index for the latest week will be released at 8:55 a.m. ET. The Labor Department's JOLTS report for February is scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. ET. The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET. The Treasury will auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.92 points to 20,665.02, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures was up 1.62 points to 2,357.16. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 13.11 points to 5,880.93.

Oil prices traded down as Brent crude futures lost 0.13 percent to trade at $55.91 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 0.13 percent to trade at $3.01 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly up today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.05 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index up 0.13 percent and German DAX 30 index down 0.10 percent. The UK's FTSE index also traded lower by 0.23 percent, while French CAC 40 Index gained 0.09 percent.

In the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average declined 0.27 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.72 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.60 percent and India's BSE Sensex was up 0.72 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN from Hold to Buy, with a price target of $1,000.

Amazon shares rose 1.36 percent to close at $907.04 on Monday.

Breaking news

• United Continental Holdings Inc UAL shares threatened to fall 5 percent in early premarket trading, with the airline continuing to face criticism regarding the passenger who was forcibly de-boarded from an aircraft on Sunday.
• Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD shares declined sharply by 3.11 percent to the bottom of the S&P 500 on Monday, as compared to the 0.07 percent rise in the S&P 500. The shares closed at $13.10 on Monday.
• Sunoco LP SUN has entered into an agreement to sell more than 1,00 gas stations and convenience stores to the parent company of 7-Eleven.
• PICO Holdings Inc PICO announced that UCP Inc UCP, its majority owned subsidiary, has entered into an agreement to merge with Century Communities, Inc CCS in a stock and cash transaction.
• AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC announced the launch of AMC Feature Fare, a menu innovation by the company. This innovation will be launched across both AMC and AMC Classic theaters. AMC Entertainment said that it would revamp 400 theaters into Feature Fare venues with the full menu.