A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Drop; Crude Oil Down 1%

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. The US is likely to impose sanctions on about a dozen Chinese officials over their alleged role in Beijing’s disqualification of elected opposition legislators in Hong Kong. Investors are awaiting earnings from Toll Brothers Inc (NYSE: TOL), Casey's General Stores Inc (NASDAQ: CASY) and Stitch Fix, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFIX).

The Investor Movement Index for November will be released at 12:30 p.m. ET, while data on consumer credit for October will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 136 points to 30,062.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 18 points to 3,680.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 25.75 points to 12,500.25.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 14,760,620 with around 282,310 deaths. India reported a total of at least 9,677,200 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 6,603,540 cases.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1% to trade at $48.75 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 1.3% to trade at $45.66 a barrel. The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 5 to 246 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.7% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 0.5%. The French CAC 40 Index dropped 1%, while German DAX 30 declined 0.6% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3%. The UK’s house price index grew 7.6% year-over-year in November, while German industrial production rose 3.2% in October.

Asian markets traded mostly lower today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.76%, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.81%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.23% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.8%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded higher by 0.6%. Australian job advertisements grew 13.9% in November. Japan’s index of leading economic indicators rose to 93.8 in October, while China's trade surplus widened to $75.42 billion in November versus $37.18 billion in the year-ago month.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at KeyBanc upgraded Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE: PKG) from Underweight to Sector Weight.

Packaging Corp shares rose 1.2% to close at $133.17 on Friday.

Breaking News

• AstraZeneca Plc’s (NASDAQ: AZN) partner, the Serum Institute of India, applied for emergency use authorization for the former's Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
• Airbnb, Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) is upping its initial public offering price range target to $56 to $60 a share compared to the earlier range of $44 to $50, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• The FDA is expected to likely to approve Pfizer Inc’s (NYSE: PFE) Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday, Fox News reported. Pfizer also applied for emergency approval of its vaccine in India.
• Online education platform Coursera is considering going public next year, Bloomberg reported.