A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Fed Speakers; Crude Oil Rises

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade after recording losses in the previous session as lawmakers are considering outgoing President Donald Trump’s impeachment. House Democrat leadership will meet throughout this week to formulate a plan to remove Trump from office. Bitcoin, meanwhile, recovered from lows of $30,635 to trade higher at $36,073 on Tuesday. Investors are awaiting earnings reports from Albertsons Companies Inc ACI and KB Home KBH.

The NFIB small business optimism index for December is scheduled for release at 6:00 a.m. ET, while the Labor Department's JOLTS report for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 9:30 a.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak at 9:35 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is set to speak at 11:00 a.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester and Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George will speak in the afternoon.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 69 points to 30,971.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded rose 9.75 points to 3,801.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 44.75 points to 12,941.75.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 22,618,060 with around 376,280 deaths. India reported a total of at least 10,479,170 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 8,131,610 cases.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.6% to trade at $56.00 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.7% to trade at $52.61 a barrel. The API’s report on crude stocks will be released later during the day.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mixed today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.3% and STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.2%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 0.1%, German DAX 30 gained 0.2% while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%. U.K.’s retail sales increased 4.8% year-over-year in December.

Asian markets traded mixed today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.09%, China’s Shanghai Composite surged 2.18%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.32% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.6%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3%. Japanese current account surplus widened to JPY 1874 billion during November versus JPY 1456 billion in the year-ago month, while bank lending rose 6.2% year-over-year in December.

Broker Recommendation

KeyBanc upgraded Portland General Electric Company POR from Sector Weight to Overweight and announced a $49 price target.

Portland General Electric shares rose 0.2% to close at $41.90 on Monday.

Breaking News

• SYNNEX Corporation SNX reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Monday. However, the company issued a weak guidance for the current quarter.
• Parler accused Amazon.com, Inc AMZN of favoring Twitter Inc TWTR in a lawsuit filed Monday after the former shut down its services following last week’s Capitol Hill riot.
• Nio Inc – ADR NIO reported a proposed offering of $1.3 billion convertible senior notes. The company also announced breakthrough advancements at its Nio Day on Saturday.
• IGM Biosciences, Inc. IGMS entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Medivir AB for birinapant.