Ahead of this morning’s opening bell, stock futures were suggesting the major indexes would likely get off to a strong start today. In overnight trading, markets in Asia were mixed, but with a bias to the upside. Meanwhile, the European indexes were all around the breakeven mark. Elsewhere, oil prices were firmly lower, with West Texas Intermediate down around 2.5%, to about $76.00 a barrel.
Fourth-quarter earnings season is in full swing, and while this week’s roster doesn’t include any of the mega-cap tech companies that usually draw the big headlines, there are a number of closely watched names that investors will be keen on. These include Netflix (NFLX) due out later today, followed by Procter & Gamble (PG) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) on Wednesday, Texas Instruments (TXN) on Thursday, and American Express (AXP) and Verizon (VZ) due out Friday.
Meanwhile, the economic calendar is relatively light for the holiday shortened week. This morning, we’ll get The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index for December. Analysts are generally looking for a slight dip of around 0.1%. The index, which is designed to provide an early read on major turning points in the business cycle, recently posted its first increase in more than two years, when it rose 0.3% in November.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor is scheduled to release its latest figures for initial unemployment claims. The Wall Street consensus is looking for another uptick, to around 220,000 claims, compared to the 217,000 reported for the week before.
Friday brings the latest figures on existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors. Estimates are calling for the year-over-year figure to come in around 4.19 million for December, versus the 4.15 million tally registered in November.
The U.S. stock exchanges were closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. – Mario Ferro
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
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