Benzinga | Feb 25, 2021 06:04AM EST

A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Mixed Ahead Of Earnings, Economic Data

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade after the Dow Jones surged more than 400 points in the previous session following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Investors are awaiting earnings reports from Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY), J M Smucker Co (NYSE:SJM), Domino's Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ), Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) and HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ).

Data on durable goods orders, Gross Domestic Product and initial jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The pending home sales index for January is scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. ET, while the Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for February will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 8:30 a.m. ET, while Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles will speak at 11:10 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 74 points to 31,990.00 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures traded flat 3,922.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 60.50 points to 13,241.50

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 28,334,980 with around 505,890 deaths. India reported a total of at least 11,046,910 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 10,324,460 cases.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.4% to trade at $66.46 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.3% to trade at $63.41 a barrel. US crude-oil inventories rose 1.3 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. The Energy Information Administration's weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.9% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 0.2%. The French CAC 40 Index rose 0.6%, German DAX 30 slipped 0.1% while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.6%. French consumer confidence indicator declined to 91 in February from 92 in January, while German consumer climate indicator rose to -12.9 heading into March.

Asian markets traded higher today. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.67%, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.2%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8%, while India's BSE Sensex rose 0.5%. Japan's index of coincident economic indicators slipped to 88.3 in December from a final reading of 89.0 in the previous month, while index of leading economic indicators dropped to 95.3 in December from a final reading of 96.1 a month ago. Australian private capital expenditure unexpectedly climbed by 3% quarter-on-quarter for the three months to December 2020.

Broker Recommendation

Credit Suisse upgraded Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) from Neutral to Outperform and announced a $79 price target..

Sunrun shares rose 1.8% to $63.70 in pre-market trading.

Check out other major ratings here



Breaking News

* NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued strong sales forecast for the current quarter.

* Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) announced it shipped its variant-specific vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.351, to the NIH for clinical study. The company also said it was making new capital investments to increase manufacturing capacity, and next year it plans to produce 1.4 billion doses, up from an earlier estimate of 1.2 billion doses.

* Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has emerged as the top bidder in an $81 billion auction that provides the license to use mid-band spectrum for 5G services.

* NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter. The company also said it expects Q4 adjusted earnings of $1.06-$1.14 per share.

Check out other breaking news here