Benzinga | Dec 15, 2020 05:56AM EST

A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Climb; Fed Meeting In Focus

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state is on the path of a second full shutdown if the virus cases uptrend continues. Investors are awaiting earnings from MTS Systems Corporation (NASDAQ:MTSC) and Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN).

The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day policy meeting today. The Empire State manufacturing index for December and data on import and export prices for November will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data on industrial production for November will be released at 9:15 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 159 points to 30,024.00 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures traded rose 21.75 points to 3,668.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 53.75 points to 12,510.25.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 16,519,620 with around 300,480 deaths. India reported a total of at least 9,906,160 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 6,927,140 cases.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 0.2% to trade at $50.37 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.2% to trade at $47.10 a barrel. The API's report on crude inventories will be released later in the day.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.4% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 0.1%. The French CAC 40 Index gained 0.8%, while German DAX 30 gained 0.6% and London's FTSE 100 rose 0.4%. London is witnessing rise in infected cases after the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus. Eurozone industrial production increased 2.1% in October, slightly better than expected .

Asian markets traded mostly lower today. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.17%, China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.06%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.69% and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.02%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded lower by 0.4%. China's industrial production grew 7%year-over-year in November, while November retail sales grew 5% year-over-year. The country's unemployment rate declined to 5.2%, as expected.



Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Piper Sandler downgraded Pluralsight, Inc. (NASDAQ:PS) from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the price target from $21 to $20.26.

Pluralsight shares rose 6.4% to close at $20.19 on Monday.



Breaking News

* Intevac, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVAC) disclosed that it has received a $5 million EVA digital night-vision sensor contract.

* Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is planning to ramp up iPhone production by 30% on a year-over-year basis during the first half of next year, Reuters reported.

* Arvinas Inc (NASDAQ:ARVN) reported a proposed offering of $250 million of common stock.

* Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) said documents related to its COVID-19 vaccine were targeted by hackers in an attack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Reuters reported Monday.