A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Drop After Hitting Record Highs On Friday; Crude Oil Down

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade after stocks closed at record highs in the previous session. The US economy shed 140,000 jobs in December following a 245,000 rise in the prior month.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 209 points to 30,784.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 24.75 points to 3,792.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 67.25 points to 13,030.00.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 22,406,810 with around 374,320 deaths. India reported a total of at least 10,466,590 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 8,105,790 cases.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1% to trade at $55.43 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.6% to trade at $51.95 a barrel. The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 8 to 275 rigs this week, Baker Hughes reported Friday.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.3% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 0.5%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 0.5%, German DAX 30 declined 0.7% while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.4%. Spain's industrial production dropped 3.8% year-over-year in November.

Asian markets traded mixed today. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1.08%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.11% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.8%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9%. China's producer prices fell 0.4% from a year earlier, while consumer price index increased 0.2% year-over-year in December. Australian retail sales rose 7.1% during November.

Broker Recommendation

Piper Sandler downgraded salesforce.com, inc. CRM from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the price target from $278 to $242..

Salesforce.com shares fell 1.7% to $218.25 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

• Baidu Inc BIDU announced plans to form an intelligent electric vehicle company and said it will partner with Volvo parent Geely Automobile Holdings.
• Apple Inc AAPL and Hyundai Motor Company HYMTF could forge a partnership to make electric vehicles in the United States starting around 2024, according to unconfirmed reports.
• Boot Barn Holdings Inc BOOT reported preliminary results for the third quarter. The company said it sees net income of around $1.00 per share on sales of $302.3 million.
• Financial technology company Stripe Inc is halting payments processing for the Trump campaign for violating its policies against encouraging violence, the Wall Street Journal reported.