Benzinga | Sep 22, 2020 06:03AM EDT

A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Mixed; Powell Testimony In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade, after recording sharp losses in the previous session. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to testify before the Joint Economic Committee at 10:30 a.m. ET. Data on existing home sales for August and the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index for September will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET, while Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 27 points to 27,028 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures traded rose 4.75 points to 3,279.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 68 points to 11,057.50.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 6,857,960 with around 199,880 deaths. India reported a total of at least 5,562,660 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 4,558,040 cases.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.4% to trade at $42.03 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.8% to trade at $39.63 a barrel. The API's report crude oil stocks will be released later in the day.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.3% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.5%. The French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.1%, while German DAX 30 rose 0.9% and London's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%. The German economy is expected to contract 5.2% this year, the Ifo Institute said. The Ifo had earlier expected a 6.7% contraction.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.98% China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.29% and India's BSE Sensex fell 0.8%. Hong Kong reported a wider current account surplus, with surplus increasing to HKD 60.536 billion in the second quarter versus HKD 33.459 billion in the year-ago period.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded The Allstate Corporation (NYSE:ALL) from Market Perform to Outperform and raised the price target from $107 to $108.

Allstate shares rose 0.8% to $92.79 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

* Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk dashed hopes surrounding the automaker's ability to reach self-sufficiency in batteries until at least 2022.

* Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has received the federal government nod to keep supplying Huawei Technologies with certain products, Reuters reported Tuesday.

* Qutoutiao Inc -- ADR (NASDAQ:QTT) reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its second quarter, while sales missed views.

* WM Motor Technology Group Co. Ltd is the latest company to benefit from the increased popularity of the electric vehicle segment with the investors in China. WM Motors raised around $1.47 billion (RMB 10 billion) in a Series D financing round.