Benzinga | Nov 17, 2020 06:02AM EST

A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Mostly Lower Ahead of Walmart, Home Depot Earnings

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mostly lower in early pre-market trade, after recording strong gains in the previous session following positive vaccine news from Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) invoked investor optimism. Investors are awaiting earnings from Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) and Nio Inc -- ADR (NYSE:NIO).

Data on retail sales, import and export prices for October will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data on industrial production for October will be released at 9:15 a.m. ET, while data on business inventories for September and the housing market index for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly, Federal Reserve Bank of New York John Williams, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren and Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin will speak today.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 85 points to 29,780.00 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures traded fell 13.25 points to 3,609.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 29.25 points to 12,034.25.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 11,205,480 with around 247,220 deaths. India reported a total of at least 8,874,290 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 5,876,460 cases.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.5% to trade at $44.05 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.4% to trade at $41.50 a barrel. The API's report on crude inventories will be released later during the day.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.9% and STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.1%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 0.2%, while German DAX 30 declined 0.2% and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.4%.



Asian markets traded mostly higher today. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.42%, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.21%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.13% and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.8%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded higher by 0.2%. Hong Kong's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.4% in October.



Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Needham initiated coverage on Vertex Inc (NASDAQ:VERX) with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $30.

Vertex shares fell 0.8% to close at $24.80 on Monday.



Breaking News

* Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will be added to the S&P 500 index after months and months of speculation. The move will take effect prior to the open of trading on December 21, 2020, to coincide with the December quarterly rebalance.

* Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter and also announced plans to buy JOYY's live streaming business in China for 3.6 billion in cash.

* Pinduoduo Inc (NASDAQ:PDD) is anticipating its annual sales for grocery items to double year-over-year in 2020 on the back of increased domestic sales.

* Co-Diagnostics Inc (NASDAQ:CODX) reported downbeat results for its third quarter.