A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Tumble Ahead Of Fed Meeting

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings reports from several companies. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day policy meeting today. The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index for November will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET, while the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for January is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 161 points to 26,269.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 12 points to 2,841.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 30.75 points to 6,961.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.45 percent to trade at $69.15 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures dropped 0.85 percent to trade at $65.00 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.81 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.43 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.44 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.63 percent, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.27 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.43 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 1.09 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.99 percent and India’s BSE Sensex dropped 0.69 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Barclays downgraded GrubHub Inc GRUB from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

GrubHub shares fell 1.40 percent to close at $75.42 on Monday.

Breaking news

• Pfizer Inc. PFE reported stronger-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.



• Aetna Inc AET reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.



• Metlife Inc MET said it expects to report net income in the $2 billion-$2.1 billion range. Adjusted earnings are to come in the $650 million-$700 million range. MetLife also postponed its Q4 earnings report to Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018.



• Danaher Corporation DHR posted upbeat results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.