A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on motor vehicle sales for September will be released today. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Randal Quarles is set to speak in Washington at 10:00 a.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will speak in Boston at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 101 points to 26,577, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 9.5 points to 2,920.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 38 points to 7,637.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.55 percent to trade at $84.51 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.01 percent to trade at $75.29 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.01 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.70 percent and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.66 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.54 percent, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.91 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.10 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.38 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.06 percent and India’s BSE Sensex climbed 0.83 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at HSBC downgraded Morgan Stanley to Hold from Buy and lowered the price target to $54 from $58.

Morgan Stanley shares fell 0.88 percent to $46.22 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• PepsiCo, Inc. PEP reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.
• Stitch Fix Inc SFIX reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates.
• Acasti Pharma Inc ACST reported an offering of common shares to holders of its outstanding convertible debentures.
• Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN announced plans to raise minimum wage to $15 for all U.S. employees, including full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal effective November 1.