After a dull Monday for the Oil sector where the Doha talks bred no agreement, US stock futures opened high Tuesday. An economic report revealed a weakness in housing statistics for March.
Healthy news from the Dow components Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group Inc. spurred a soar in premarket after the release of their quarterly earnings. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and IBM fell after their quarter results failed to meet the expectations.
S&P 500 futures ESM6, up 0.38% to to 2,094, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMM6, up 0.23% climbed 40 points to 17,968. Nasdaq-100 futures NQM6, up 0.56% increased 28 points to 4,574.
West Texas Intermediate crude prices CLK6, up 0.35% with prices settling at around $40 a barrel.
Naeem Aslam, Chief Market Analyst at AvaTrade’s said in a note, “The stability in oil prices has strengthened attitudes among traders, who are developing a strong appetite for riskier assets.”
On Monday, the Dow DJIA, up 0.60% added 106.70 poi or points to 18,004.16, ending the day above 18,000 for the first time since July while crude oil counted losses.
Crude futures declined early Monday morning after OPEC meeting at Doha failed to agree to cut production. The Kuwait workers news brought some relief to the commodity and settled moderately afterwards.
Aslam also added that, “The Dow now stands back above 18,000 and “only a touch away from its all-time high. What does this spell out? Nothing but pure confidence.”
Today’s Movers
J&J’s JNJ, up 0.24% after their quarterly profit report topped analysts’ forecasts, and UnitedHealth’s UNH, up 1.52% revenues also beat expectations making each company’s shares to climb.
Harley-Davidson Inc. HOG, climbed 0.64% after better-than-expected revenue reports while Philip Morris International Inc. PM, up 0.49%, shares slumped after the tobacco bluechip posted poor than expected first-quarter results.
Intel Corp. INTC, up 0.60%. Yahoo Inc. YHOO, 0.03%. Discover Financial Services DFS, up 0.15%. Intuitive Surgical Inc. ISRG, up 0.44%. Intuitive surgical is expected to report quarterly earnings after the closing bell.
News about Yahoo’s potential sale are expected to make headlines during its quarterly earnings report. According to a Bloomberg report, YP Holdings LLC, the new name for Yellowpages.com’s online advertising business is among the possible buyers with an interest in Yahoo.
Losers
Goldman’s GS, was down 0.39% after their quarterly revenue results missed expectations. Also, VMware Inc. VMW, down 0.08% while Netflix Inc. NFLX, down 8.80% and IBM IBM, 3.98%. All these companies fell following their late Monday evening reports where majority missed to meet their revenue expectations. Netflix gave a poor estimate for subscriber growth which turned out not to be the case. Big Blue on the other hand had better-than forecasted results, their revenue still declined for the 16th straight quarter.
Other major markets
European stocks SXXP, up +1.35% climbed, also the Asian markets closed up, with Japan’s Nikkei NIK, up 3.68% advanced as the yen USDJPY, up 0.43% declined. Gold GCM6, up 1.30% and silver futures SIK6, up 4.26% rose as a key dollar index DXY, 0.33% dropped.