Benzinga | Jul 28, 2020 06:06AM EDT

A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Edge Lower Ahead Of Earnings Reports, Fed Meeting

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded slightly lower in early pre-market trade, after recording a rise in the earlier session. Investors are awaiting earnings results from Mcdonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and 3M Co (NYSE:MMM) and Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX). The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to begin its two-day policy meeting today. The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index for May is scheduled to release at 9:00 a.m. ET, while the Conference Board's consumer confidence index and the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index for July will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 4,294,770 with around 148,050 deaths. Brazil confirmed over 2,442,370 cases, while India reported a total of at least 1,480,070 confirmed cases.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 63 points to 26,421 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures traded fell 7.50 points to 3,224.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 36 points to 10,639.25.

Oil prices traded mixed as Brent crude futures rose 0.1% to trade at $43.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $41.43 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.8% and STOXX Europe 600 Index climbing 0.3%. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.5%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.1% and German DAX 30 gained 0.4%.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.69%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.71% and India's BSE Sensex rose 1.1%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at JP Morgan upgraded Avery Dennison Corp (NYSE:AVY) from Underweight to Neutral and raised the price target from $110 to $115.

Avery Dennison shares fell 3.8% to close at $115.86 on Monday.

Breaking News

* Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO) reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

* Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) commenced a Phase 2/3 safety and efficacy clinical study to evaluate a single nucleoside-modified messenger RNA candidate from their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program, against SARS-CoV-2.

* Private equity firm Sycamore Partners is leading a bidding war to acquire bankrupt J.C. Penney Company, Inc, the New York Post reported Monday.

* F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) reported upbeat results for its third quarter and issued a strong profit outlook for the current quarter.