Futures Point to Muted Open for Stocks
Premarket futures were indicating a flat open Wednesday as investors awaited the release of retail sales data as well as import and export prices.
Futures for the
S&P 500
were down 2.5 points at 1289 and were half a point above fair value.
Nasdaq
futures were down 4 points at 1941 and were 4 points below fair value.
Later this morning, traders will hear the Census Bureau's take on the state of retail sales for July in addition to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' update on U.S. import and export prices.
On the companies side, semiconductor firm
Nvidia
(NVDA) - Get NVIDIA Corporation Report
said it swung to a quarterly loss because of flawed chips and a failure to anticipate the impact of a new graphics chip from rival
Advanced Micro Devices
(AMD) - Get Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Report
.
Another piece of discouraging news in the semiconductor sphere came from
Applied Materials
TheStreet Recommends
(AMAT) - Get Applied Materials, Inc. Report
, who said its profit declined 65% for the third quarter owing to the economic slowdown.
Later, farm-equipment maker
Deere
(DE) - Get Deere & Company Report
and department-store operator
Macy's
will report quarterly earnings.
On the corporate merger scene, drug store operator
CVS Caremark
(CVS) - Get CVS Health Corporation Report
said it would buy
Longs Drug Stores
(LDG)
for roughly $2.6 billion in an effort to expand its presence in the western U.S.
Away from stocks, U.S. Treasuries were essentially holding steady. The 10-year note was losing 2/32 in price to yield 3.9%, and the 30-year was gaining 1/32 to yield 4.53%. The dollar was gaining substantially against the euro and the pound, but weakening vs. the yen.
In the commodities area, crude oil was adding 72 cents to $113.73 a barrel. Gold was up $15.40 to $830 an ounce.
