A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Point To A Lower Open

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG), Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL). The manufacturing PMI for April is scheduled for release at 9:45 a.m. ET. Data on construction spending for March and the ISM manufacturing index for April will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The U.S. is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. Total COVID-19 cases in the U.S. exceeded 1,070,030 with around 63,010 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 213,430 cases, while Italy reported a total of at least 205,460 confirmed cases.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 455 points to 23,775 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 58.90 points to 2,843.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 231 points to 8,757.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 2.1% to trade at $ 25.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 2.1% to trade at $18.44 a barrel. The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

In European markets, the UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 2.2%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.84%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Piper Sandler upgraded Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $21 to $34.

Big Lots shares fell 1.9% to $23.00 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for its fiscal second quarter.
• Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Lonza reported a worldwide strategic collaboration to manufacture Moderna's vaccine (mRNA-1273) against novel coronavirus.
• Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported downbeat earnings for its first quarter, while sales exceeded estimates. Amazon said it expects second-quarter sales $75 billion to $81 billion.
• Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC) reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter on Thursday.