A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Down Ahead Of Three-Day Weekend

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, after a drop in the equity markets on Thursday. Stock markets will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Alibaba Group Holding Inc. BABA, Deere Inc. DE and Foot Locker Inc. FL.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world. Total coronavirus cases in the U.S. exceeded 1,577,750 with around 94,720 deaths. Russia reported a total of at least 326,440 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 310,080 cases.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 94 points to 24,282 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 11.15 points to 2,925.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 48.5 points to 9,307.25.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 4.7% to trade at $34.37 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 5.5% to trade at $32.05 a barrel. The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.1%, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.8% and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.7%. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 1.2%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.4%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.8%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 5.56%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.89% and India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.8%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Raymond James downgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co HPE from Outperform to Market Perform.

Hewlett Packard shares fell 5.4% to $9.80 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Ross Stores, Inc. ROST reported downbeat results for its first quarter on Thursday.
• Amazon Inc. AMZN announced plans to reschedule its Prime Day sale to September due to pressures on its warehouses caused by rising pandemic driven demand. The Prime Day event is usually held in July.
• NVIDIA Corporation NVDA reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for its first quarter.
• Troubled relations between the US and China are expected to worsen further as the latter brings in a new security law for Hong Kong.