A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Rise Ahead Of Walmart Earnings

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from Walmart Inc. WMT. Data on housing starts for April and initial jobless claims for the latest week and the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index for May will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 81 points to 25,755.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 9 points to 2,863.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 22.25 points to 7,550.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.4 percent to trade at $72.07 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 0.7 percent to trade at $62.46 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.4 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index climbed 0.3 percent and German DAX 30 index gained 0.6 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.2 percent, while French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.3 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.59 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.02 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.58 percent and India’s BSE Sensex climbed 0.75 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded Macy's Inc M from Sell to Neutral and lowered the price target from $23 to $21.

Macy's shares rose 0.8 percent to $21.88 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO announced plans to acquire manufacturing site in Cork, Ireland, from GSK for €90 million in cash.
• Eagle Materials, Inc. EXP reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter.
• Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter. The company sees sales growth of 4.5-6.5 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter.
• Flowers Foods, Inc. FLO reported better-than-expected Q1 results and reaffirmed its FY19 guidance.