July 13 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know
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Here are 10 things you should know for Wednesday, July 13:
1. -- U.S. stock futures were rising slightly Wednesday following Tuesday's action that saw U.S. benchmarks finish at record highs.
European stocks traded mixed while Asian shares closed the session with gains. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.8% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.5%.
Oil prices in the U.S. early Wednesday were down 1.2% to $46.26 a barrel.
2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. Wednesday includes Export and Import Prices for June at 8:30 a.m. EDT, Crude Inventories for the week ended July 9 at 10:30 a.m., the Federal Reserve's "Beige Book" for July at 2 p.m., and the Treasury Budget for June at 2 p.m.
3. -- U.S. stocks on Tuesday rose, extending a rally into day three and pushing the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to clinch new record closing highs.
The S&P 500 gained 0.70%, setting a record close of 2,152.14. The benchmark index had closed at a record a day earlier for the first time in 14 months.
The Dow climbed 0.66% to 18,347.67, breaking a previous record close seen in May last year. The Nasdaq added 0.69% to erase all 2016 losses. It closed at 5,022.82.
4. -- The Federal Reserve is coming up short on both its employment and inflation goals, and can be patient in raising interest rates as it seeks to allow more people who want jobs or more working hours to get them, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said at a town hall in Michigan on Tuesday.
"We should take our time when we go ahead and start raising rates again," Kashkari said, Reuters reported. "There's not a huge urgency to raise rates because inflation is coming up low."
Meanwhile, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester reiterated Tuesday her belief that the outcome of the Brexit vote has increased uncertainty about the economic outlook, while adding the U.S. central bank has breathing room to decide what's next for its interest-rate policy stance.
"I do not think U.S. monetary policy is behind the curve yet" so it was right for the Fed to hold rates steady last month, Mester said, The Wall Street Journal reported. She added, "I expect we will be living with uncertainty for a while as the U.K. and Europe establish the terms of their new relationship."
5. -- Amazon.com's (AMZN) - Get Report second-ever Prime Day may have shaped up to be a disappointment -- at least in terms of sales.
According to data provided to TheStreet by ChannelAdvisor, which tracks sales of third-party sellers on Amazon, sales on Prime Day in the U.S. as of 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday were just in line compared with last year. Analysts, however, were expecting sales to as much as double from last year's estimated haul of $400 million in incremental revenue. Meanwhile, Prime Day sales in the U.K. as of 5 p.m. EDT had gained 12% from last year.
ChannelAdvisor noted, however, that it doesn't track sales where Amazon is the direct seller, which would include sales of products such as the Echo and Fire tablets. The firm also noted that a change in how search results were displayed this year may have minimized sales for third-party sellers.
Amazon hasn't released overall sales results for Prime Day but did its best to put a positive spin on the performance. According to an Amazon spokeswoman, Amazon saw a 30% increase from last year in the number of items sold by small businesses and sellers on Prime Day.
6. -- Shares of Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) soared 28% in premarket trading to $35.50 on Wednesdayafter the biopharmaceutical company said the Food and Drug Administration had removed the clinical hold on the Phase 2 clinical trial of JCAR015, aimed at adult patients with relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The announcement that Juno will resume the trial came five days after the Seattle company said the FDA had halted the trial after two patient deaths, which followed the recent addition of fludarabine to the pre-conditioning regimen. News of the clinical hold sent the company's shares diving. The stock closed at $27.81 on July 8, down nearly 32%.
7. -- Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, manager of the Sequoia Fund and once the largest shareholder in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) , said the $4.8 billion mutual fund exited that investment last month after losses, Bloomberg reported.
Valeant, which once accounted for more than 30% of the Sequoia portfolio, was no longer a holding by mid-June, the firm told investors Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
"Valeant was our largest position to start the year and its 80% decline through June 30 badly penalized our results," said a letter signed by the fund's investment committee, including Ruane Cunniff CEO David Poppe.
8. -- Nissan's (NSANY) new Serena minivan featuring self-driving technology goes on sale in Japan next month.
The minivan equipped with ProPilot technology relies on a single camera in the back of the driver's rearview mirror. The car can then follow the vehicle ahead, maintaining a safe distance that the driver sets.
It also recognizes lanes so it won't swerve off. If the car it's following moves to another lane, it's smart enough to find the next car ahead of it and start following that one. And it keeps going on a freeway at a set speed.
ProPilot is designed to ease stress on stop-and-go congested roads common in Japan, as well as long drives on uncongested roads, like the interstate highways in the U.S., when a driver might tire and get sleepy, according to the Associated Press.
But ProPilot is designed only to help drivers. Drivers must keep their hands on the steering wheel, and an alarm goes off if a sensor on the wheel detects no-hands driving.
9. -- Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) - Get Report is turning to hackers to expose software vulnerability in its cars and trucks.
The automaker is offering $150 to $1,500 to people who spot software bugs and report them so they can be fixed. The size of the reward depends on how critical the bug is and how many vehicles it affects.
FCA will offer the bounty on the Bugcrowd platform. The platform will manage the payouts. Bugcrowd said it has about 30,000 security researchers as members.
10. -- Earnings are expected Wednesday from CSX (CSX) - Get Report and Yum! Brands (YUM) - Get Report .