A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Mixed; Jobless Claims Report In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH and Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week, and import and export prices for April will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.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 1,390,760 with around 84,130 deaths. Russia reported a total of at least 242,270 confirmed cases, while Britain confirmed over 230,980 cases.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 27 points to 23,139 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 2.35 points to 2,810.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 21 points to 9,012.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 2.4% to trade at $29.89 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 2.8% to trade at $26.00 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.8%, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 1.6% and German DAX 30 index dropping 1.5%. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 2%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 1.8%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.74%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.45%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.96% and India’s BSE Sensex fell 2.2%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Oppenheimer downgraded Sprouts Farmers Market Inc SFM from Outperform to Perform.

Sprouts Farmers Market shares fell 0.9% to $25.36 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for its third quarter and issued strong earnings outlook for the current quarter.
• Uber Technologies Inc.'s UBER acquisition offer to GrubHub Inc. GRUB values the latter at $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
• Jack in the Box Inc. JACK reported downbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales exceeded views.
• SmileDirectClub Inc SDC reported a wider-than-expected loss for its first quarter. The company’s unique aligner shipments rose 12% to 122,751 during the quarter.