US stock futures declined as a government report showed a bigger-than-expected drop in US retail sales, against a continued backdrop of falling copper and oil prices.
Retail sales in the world’s biggest economy decreased 0.9% in December, much more than the 0.1% dip predicted by analysts. The Commerce Department’s figures marked the largest fall since January 2014.
Providing another drag was the persistent slide in oil prices with West Texas Intermediate crude down 0.9% to $ 45.44 per barrel. United Arab Emirates and Kuwait expect a global supply glut will continue to at least the second half of 2015.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest US energy company by market value, was among the fallers.
A slip in copper prices also weighed, sending commodity stocks lower. It came after the World Bank cut its global growth forecasts citing a weakness in Europe and China, a major consumer of industrial metal. The bank predicts global growth of 3% this year and 3.3% next year, below its June forecast of 3.4% and 3.5% respectively.
Copper producers Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper Corp. slumped.
Corporate news
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Tesla Motors plunged after the electric-car maker’s chief executive said the company might become profitable by 2020.
Netflix advanced after brokers Stifel Financial upgraded the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.