Benzinga | Nov 16, 2020 06:00AM EST

A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Up; Crude Oil Rises Over 1%

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade, after recording strong gains last week. Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations signed the world's biggest trade deal on Sunday. Investors are awaiting earnings from JD.Com Inc (NASDAQ:JD), Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN).

The Empire State manufacturing index for November is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly is set to speak at 1:45 p.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 244 points to 29,264.00 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures traded rose 28.10 points to 3,610.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 65 points to 11,998.50.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 11,037,770 with around 246,210 deaths. India reported a total of at least 8,845,120 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 5,863,090 cases.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.3% to trade at $43.34 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 1.5% to trade at $40.75 a barrel. The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 10 to 236 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.2% and STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.7%. The French CAC 40 Index rose 1.1%, while German DAX 30 gained 0.5% and London's FTSE 100 rose 0.8%.



Asian markets traded higher today. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.05%, China's Shanghai Composite climbed 1.11%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.86% and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.7%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded higher by 1.2%. Industrial production in Japan increased 3.9% in September, while the country's economy advanced 5% in the third quarter. China's industrial production rose 6.9% year-over-year in October, while retail trade increased 4.3% year-over-year in October.



Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Jefferies downgraded Tilray, Inc. (NASDAQ:TLRY) from Hold to Underperform and lowered the price target from $5.6 to $4.77.

Tilray shares fell 1.2% to $7.56 in pre-market trading.



Breaking News

* Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) has sold a majority of its stake in the Japanese supermarket chain Seiyu to investment firm KKR & Co, Inc (NYSE:KKR) and local e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten in a $1.65 billion (JPY 172.5 billion) deal.

* PNC Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:PNC) agreed to buy Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA's U.S. business in an $11 billion all-cash deal.

* Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) started the two-dose Phase 3 trial of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, dubbed "ENSEMBLE 2."

* Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has split into two cryptocurrencies called Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH ABC) and Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN), CoinDesk reported Sunday.