Stock futures pointed to a punishing session Tuesday as a two-day rally for China’s stock market began to unravel, reviving questions about economic growth in the second-largest economy and the implications for the U.S.
Investors were also braced for a heavy deluge of earnings from major companies such as Caterpillar Inc., and McDonald’s.
How are major indexes trading?
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
fell 352 points, or 1.4%, to 24,941, while S&P 500 futures
fell 41.75 points, or 1.5%, to 2,715.25. Nasdaq-100 futures
slid 127 points, or 1.8%, to 7,033.
On Monday, Dow industrials
dropped 126.93 points, or 0.5%, to end at 25,317.41, while the S&P 500
shed 0.4%, to close at 2,755.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index
managed a 0.3% gain, to finish at 7,468.63.
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What’s driving the markets
More than 150 companies are on tap to announce financial results this week. Investors are pinning hopes that stock markets will find fresh impetus to move higher via those results.
But jittery investors were looking around at risks piling up, with China in the spotlight as the Shanghai Composite Index
gave back part of a two-day rally, falling 2.3%. That is as government officials have spent the last few days trying to prop the market up with verbal encouragement for investors.
U.S. -China trade tensions are also a lingering factor for investors. On Monday, came news that two U.S. Navy warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Monday, but were shadowed closely by Chinese warships.
Elsewhere, Italy’s budget plan is expected to told to revise its budget by the European Commission on Tuesday, as the back-and-forth continues between the country’s antiestablishment government and Brussels.
Aside from earnings, investors continue to worry about how higher interest rates could impact the economy, as the Federal Reserve has indicated a move to tighten up monetary policy by year’s end.
What are analysts saying?
“Nerves ahead of a slew of corporate earnings reports out this weeks from names such as Amazon and economic bellwether Caterpillar, in addition to rising geopolitical tensions meant that investors are still not prepared to put risk fully back on the table,” said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, in a note to clients.
Which stocks are in focus
A number of Dow components were set to report results. Shares of Caterpillar Inc.
were declining 1.8% in premarket trade Tuesday, with the industrial giant on track to report its quarterly results.
McDonald’s Corp. shares
were also inching lower, down 0.5%, in premarket action ahead of its earnings report. United Technologies Corp.
wasn’t trading in premarket but those for Verizon Communications Inc.
were down 1.2% as those blue chips were set to release earnings. 3M Co.
stock traded 0.7% lower.
Also on the earnings docket were Biogen Inc.
and Harley-Davidson Inc.
as well as Lockheed Martin Corp.
What are other markets doing?
Losses weren’t just felt in China, as the Nikkei 225 index
tumbled 2.7% and the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
dropped 3.1%. European stock futures also were trading sharply lower.
As investors backed away from perceived riskier assets such as stocks, they sought a haven in the Japanese yen
which was up around 0.6% against the dollar to ¥112.18. Gold prices
also jumped, while oil futures
slipped.
And the yield on the 10-year Treasury note
fell to 3.15%. Yields move inversely to prices.
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