US Stock Futures Mixed Ahead Of Fed's Beige Book; Tesla Earnings In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade on Wednesday after closing higher in the previous session. The Dow Jones jumped by more than 300 points on Tuesday extending gains from Monday.

Data on housing starts and permits for September will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. After an unexpected rebound to 1.575 million in August, analysts expect housing starts resuming their path downward to a 1.475 million annualized rate in September. Permits are likely to recover to 1.550 million in September. The Federal Open Market Committee will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET, while Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will speak at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Investors are also awaiting earnings results from The Procter & Gamble Company PG, International Business Machines Corporation IBM, and Tesla, Inc. TSLA.

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Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 37 points to 30,539.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures slipped 1 point to 3,731.75. Futures for the Nasdaq index climbed 17.25 points to 11,216.00.

Commodities

Oil prices traded slightly higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.1% to trade at $90.04 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.3% to trade at $83.06 a barrel. The American Petroleum Institute reported a decline for crude oil of 1.27 million barrels this week. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Gold futures fell 0.6% to trade at $1,646.00 an ounce, while silver traded down 0.6% at $18.495 an ounce on Wednesday.

A Peek Into Global Markets

Europe Markets

European markets were mostly lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.7%. The French CAC 40 Index gained 0.1%, while German DAX fell 0.1%.

The Eurozone annual inflation rate fell to 9.9% in September versus a preliminary reading of 10.0%, while construction output in the region climbed 2.3% year-over-year in August.

The annual inflation rate in the UK accelerated to 10.1% in September from 9.9% in the previous month, while producer inflation climbed 15.9% year-over-year in September slowing from a revised 16.4% increase a month ago.

Asia-Pacific Markets

Asian markets traded mixed today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.37%, China’s Composite Index fell 1.19%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.38%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%, while India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.4%.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Economic Index for Australia came in unchanged from a month ago in September.

Broker Recommendation

JP Morgan upgraded Veeva Systems Inc. VEEV from Underweight to Neutral and lowered the price target from $225 to $170.

Veeva shares rose 0.8% to close at $159.17 on Tuesday.

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Breaking News

• Starbucks Corporation SBUX agreed to sell Seattle's Best Coffee brand to Nestlé.
• Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink has launched a new service that will allow air travelers to stay connected while on a flight.
• Intuitive Surgical, Inc. ISRG reported better-than-expected third-quarter adjusted EPS and sales results.
• Netflix Inc. NFLX plans to dive deep into gaming and is considering its own cloud gaming platform. At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Tuesday, the company's VP of games, Mike Verdu, said that the streaming giant is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering so that we can reach members on TVs and on PCs."

Check out other breaking news here