A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Down Ahead Of JC Penney Earnings

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from J. C. Penney Company, Inc. JCP. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week and the Philly Fed general conditions index for May will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The index of leading economic indicators for April is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET. Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 10:45 a.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 24 points to 24,716.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures declined 4.75 points to 2,718.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 28.50 points to 6,910.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.74 percent to trade at $79.87 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 0.88 percent to trade at $72.12 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.30 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.13 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 0.26 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.18 percent, while French CAC 40 Index rose 0.37 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.53 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.54 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.48 percent and India’s BSE Sensex slipped 0.67 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Barclays upgraded The Coca-Cola Company KO from Equal-Weight to Overweight.

Coca-Cola shares rose 0.91 percent to $41.93 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• Walmart Inc WMT reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.



• Childrens Place Inc PLCE reported downbeat results for its first quarter.



• Jack in the Box Inc. JACK reported downbeat results for its second quarter. Comps were down 0.1 percent in the quarter. The company sees third-quarter comps coming in flat to up 1 percent.



• Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter. The company sees fourth quarter earnings in the range of 68 cents-70 cents with sales growth of 4-6 percent.