5 Things You Must Know Before the Market Opens Wednesday

U.S. stock futures are rising Wednesday, setting up the Dow Jones Industrial Average for its seventh record close in a row.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

Updated from 6 a.m. EDT

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Here are five things you must know for Wednesday, July 20:

1. -- U.S. stock futures were rising Wednesday, setting up the Dow Jones Industrial Average for its seventh record close in a row.

European stocks edged higher as German producer price data supported expectations of a pickup in the country's very low rate of inflation and tech heavyweight SAP (SAP) - Get Report beat quarterly profit and revenue expectations.

Asian shares ended Wednesday's session mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1%.

The economic calendar in the U.S. Wednesday includes Crude Inventories for the week ended July 16 at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Oil prices in the U.S. early Wednesday fell slightly to $44.62 a barrel.

U.S. stocks on Tuesday finished mixed as better-than-expected earnings from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - Get Report  pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average to close out the day with another record, while disappointment over Netflix (NFLX) - Get Report  pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq into the red. 

The S&P 500 fell 0.14%, and the Nasdaq slid 0.4%. The Dow added 0.14% to settle at 18,559, a record close.

2. -- Nintendo (NTDOY) shares tumbled more than 12% in Japan after TechCrunch reported that game maker Nianticpostponed Wednesday's scheduled launch of Pokemon GO in Japan following an email leak.

One major reason for the postponement, according to TechCrunch, was that internal communication from McDonald's Japan, the game's sponsor, detailing the launch made its way to certain Internet forums. An initial morning launch time was pushed back to early afternoon as the email went viral. The companies decided later, however, to cancel Wednesday's launch entirely due to concerns that the hype generated would overload the game, a source told TechCrunch.

Some reports said the game could go live in Japan on Thursday. TechCrunch understands the launch is "imminent" but unspecified.

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3. -- Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report  said Tuesday that revenue for the Azure cloud platform more than doubled in its fiscal fourth quarter from a year earlier. That growth, combined with increases in revenue from Windows software licenses and other key segments, helped offset a revenue drop from the Nokia smartphone business that Microsoft largely shut down last year.

Microsoft posted adjusted earnings in the quarter of 69 cents a share, topping Wall Street estimates. Revenue was $22.64 billion, also ahead of forecasts.

The stock was rising 4.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

4. -- Morgan Stanley (MS) - Get Report  posted second-quarter earnings Tuesday of 75 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of 85 cents but above Wall Street forecasts of 59 cents.

Revenue of $8.9 billion also fell from a year earlier but topped expectations.

The stock rose 2.9% in premarket trading.

Halliburton (HAL) - Get Report , the provider of drilling services to oil and gas operators, reported a second-quarter loss of $3.73 a share. After adjustments, the loss in the quarter was 14 cents a share. Analysts were expecting a loss of 19 cents.

5. -- Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, appointed Emmanuel "Manny" Roman as its new CEO, replacing Douglas Hodge.

Roman comes to the giant bond fund from Man Group, the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund manager, where he has served as CEO since February 2013. Roman, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs, will join Pimco on Nov 1.

"Manny's deep understanding of global markets, unique skills in investment management and appreciation of Pimco's macro-based investment process make him the ideal executive to position the firm for long-term success," said Daniel Ivascyn, Pimco's group chief investment officer, in a statement.

Pimco recently has suffered management upheaval and lost about 25% of its assets since 2013, when the firm oversaw $2 trillion, according to Bloomberg.

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