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A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Down Ahead Of Fed Minutes

AXSM, LOW, NFLX, WGO | October 17, 2018

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings reports from several companies. Data on housing starts for September will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. US Federal Reserve Bank Governor Lael Brainard is set to speak in Boston, MA at 12:10 p.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 60 points to 25,724.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 5.5 points to 2,812.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 16.25 points to 7,337.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.39 percent to trade at $81.09 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.60 percent to trade at $71.49 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.26 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.11 percent and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.33 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 0.26 percent, while French CAC 40 Index slipped 0.03 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.29 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.07 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.60 percent and India’s BSE Sensex fell 1.09 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $115 to $111.

Lowe's shares fell 0.20 percent to $105.77 in pre-market trading.

Breaking News

Axsome Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: AXSM) disclosed that it has received the FDA Orphan Drug designation for AXS-12 for the treatment of narcolepsy.
Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE: WGO) reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: JNJ) reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter. The company had total streaming net additions of 6.96 million.