US Stock Futures Mostly Higher Ahead Of GDP, Jobless Claims Data; Apple, Amazon Earnings In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mostly higher in early pre-market trade on Thursday after closing mostly lower in the previous session. The Nasdaq index dipped by more than 200 points on Wednesday following weak earnings results from Alphabet Inc. GOOG.

Data on durable goods orders for September will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts expect durable goods orders increasing 0.6% in September following August's 0.2% drop. Gross Domestic Product report for the third quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts expect Q3 GDP increasing to 2.3% annualized growth compared to contraction of 0.6% in the second quarter. Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for October will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Investors are awaiting earnings results from Apple Inc. AAPL, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Mastercard Incorporated MA, and Caterpillar Inc. CAT and McDonald's Corporation MCD.

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Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 122 points to 31,994.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 6 points to 3,847.00. Futures for the Nasdaq index fell 27.25 points to 11,418.75.

Commodities

Oil prices traded slightly lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.2% to trade at $93.66 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.2% to trade at $87.79 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.

Gold futures fell 0.2% to trade at $1,666.20 an ounce, while silver traded down 0.8% at $19.33 an ounce on Thursday.

A Peek Into Global Markets

Europe Markets

European markets were mostly lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 0.6%, while German DAX fell 0.5%.

Spain's unemployment rate climbed to 12.67% in the third quarter from 12.48% in the prior three-month period, while Italian consumer confidence declined by 4.7 points from the previous month to 90.1 in October. Manufacturing confidence in Italy dropped to 100.4 in October from a revised 101.2 in the previous month. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany rose to -41.9 heading into November versus a revised -42.8 in the prior month. UK’s car production dropped 6% from a year ago to 63,125 units in September.

Asia-Pacific Markets

Asian markets traded mostly lower today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.32%, China’s Composite Index fell 0.55%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 0.72%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5%, while India’s BSE Sensex slipped 0.1%.

Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms fell by 2.3% year-over-year to CNY 62.44 trillion during the first nine months of the year. Australia's export prices fell by 3.6% on quarter in the third quarter, while import prices climbed by 3.0% quarter-on-quarter.

Broker Recommendation

Keybanc downgraded Meta Platforms, Inc. META from Overweight to Sector Weight.

Meta shares fell 19.9% to $103.97 in pre-market trading.

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Breaking News

• Meta Platforms, Inc. META reported downbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales topped estimates. The company reported 1.98 billion daily active users for Facebook, up 3% year-over-year.
• Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk reportedly doesn’t plan to cut Twitter Inc TWTR staff by 75% after he takes over the social media company.
• ServiceNow Inc NOW reported better-than-expected earnings results for its third quarter.
• Led by investor skepticism and burgeoning risk in the financial markets driven by crude oil price volatility and central banks’ actions to tame inflation, President Joe Biden's team members are considering reworking a plan to cap Russian oil prices, reported Bloomberg.

Check out other breaking news here