A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Gain Ahead Of Earnings

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from several important companies. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day meeting today. The FHFA house price index and the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index for May will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index and the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index for July will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 73 points to 21,572.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 5.25 points to 2,473.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 3 points to 5,937.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.54 percent to trade at $49.35 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures gained 1.58 percent to trade at $47.07 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 1.49 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index climbing 0.71 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 0.58 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.96 percent, while French CAC 40 Index rose 1.09 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.10 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 0.02 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.21 percent and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.05 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Raymond James downgraded WebMD Health Corp. WBMD from Outperform to Market Perform.

WebMD shares fell 0.15 percent to $66.00 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• Caterpillar Inc. CAT reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.



• General Motors Company GM posted upbeat earnings for its second quarter on Tuesday.



• Alphabet Inc GOOGL reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Monday.



• JetBlue Airways Corporation JBLU reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter.