A Peek Into The Markets: US Stock Futures Mostly Lower Ahead Of Fed Meeting

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded mostly lower in early pre-market trade. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day policy meeting today. The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index for August will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET, while the Conference Board consumer confidence index for October is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET. The pending home sales index for September will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 47 points to 27,006 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures traded fell 2.5 points to 3,033.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 3.5 points to 8,098.25.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.6% to trade at $60.86 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.8% to trade at $55.35 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.6%, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.4% and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.2%. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.4%, while French CAC 40 Index fell 0.2%.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.47%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.39%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.87% and India’s BSE Sensex rose 1.46%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Imperial Capital downgraded AMC Networks (NASDAQ: AMCX) from In-Line to Underperform and lowered the price target from $53 to $41.

AMC Networks shares rose 0.1% to close at $46.80 on Monday.

Breaking News

• Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.
• GrubHub Inc (NYSE: GRUB) reported in-line earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views. The food delivery service sees fourth-quarter sales between $315 million and $335 million compared to a $387.31 million estimate.
• Owens-Illinois Inc (NYSE: OI) reported worse-than-expected Q3 results. The company also issued Q4 and FY19 EPS guidance below analyst estimates.
• Amkor Technology (NASDAQ: AMKR) shares climbed over 17% in pre-market trading after the company reported Q3 EPS of $0.23 versus the $0.08 estimate and reported better-than-expected Q3 sales results. The company also issued strong Q4 guidance.