A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start on Wall Street; GM Earnings in Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade with election results so far pointing to the odds of Joe Biden winning the presidency. Investors are awaiting earnings from AmerisourceBergen Corp ABC, Cardinal Health Inc CAH, General Motors Company GM, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd - ADR BABA. Wall Street closed sharply higher post the election day.

The Challenger job-cut report for October is scheduled for release at 7:30 a.m. ET, while data on initial jobless claims for the latest week and nonfarm productivity for the third quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET, while the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 339 points to 28,074.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded rose 61.25 points to 3,496.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 322.25 points to 12,085.25.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 9,486,480 with around 233,720 deaths. India reported a total of at least 8,364,080 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 5,590,020 cases.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.8% to trade at $40.90 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 1% to trade at $38.75 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 higher today after recording gains in the previous session. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.6% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 0.5%. The French CAC 40 Index rose 0.6%, while German DAX 30 gained 0.8% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%. Eurozone’s Producer Price Index rose 0.3% month-over-month for October but declined 2.4% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the Composite and Services PMI for the region exceeded consensus.

Asian markets traded higher today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.73%, China’s Shanghai Composite rose 1.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 3.25% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 1.7%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded higher by 1.3%. Japan’s services PMI data rose to 47.7 in October, beating a consensus of 46.9.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Oppenheimer upgraded Microsoft Corporation MSFT from Perform to Outperform and announced a $260 price target.

Microsoft shares rose 2.6% to $222.11 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong guidance for the first quarter.
• Expedia Group Inc EXPE reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its third quarter, while sales exceeded views.
• Amazon Inc AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos has offloaded $3 billion worth of the e-commerce company's shares this week, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
• Apple Inc AAPL is facing a shortage of chips used for power management in the iPhone, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.