U.S. PRE-MARKET INDICATORS
-Dow Jones Industrial futures down 12 points.
-S&P 500 futures down 2.6 points.
-Nasdaq 100 futures down 4.25 points.
-Nasdaq Pre-Market indicator down 4.25 points
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
Nikkei up 0.5%
Hang Seng up 0.3%
Shanghai Composite down 0.9%
FTSE-100 down 0.2%
PRE-MARKET SECTOR WATCH
(+) Large cap tech: mostly higher
(+) Chip stocks: mixed
(+) Software stocks: higher
(+) Internet stocks: mixed
(-,+) Drug stocks: mixed
(+) Financial stocks: down
(+,-) Retail stocks: mixed
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) DNDN (+4.2%)
(+) DRYS (+3.5%)
(+) TSLA (+13.2%)
(+) SYMX (+33.7%)
(+) HRZ (+2,4%)
(+) LSE (-5.4%)
(+) NLTX (+93.4%)
(+) RXII (+12%)
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) GMR (-6.5%)
(-) LVS (-4.1%)
(-) NXPI (-1.9%)
MARKET DIRECTION
Stock futures are tilting lower ahead of the open as weekly
jobless claims figures remain nearly the same. The US Department of
Labor said the number of people who filed initial jobless benefits
applications declined by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000 in
the week ended March 26. Later today, the Chicago purchasing
managers index for March and factory orders for February will
hit.
Eyes are looking ahead to tomorrow for the release of nonfarm
payrolls and the unemployment rate for March.
In company news:
Nile Therapeutics (
NLTX
) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has
granted Fast Track designation to Nile's post-acute development
program for cenderitide, which has the goal of reducing
cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular re-hospitalization in
the post-acute period in patients with acute decompensated heart
failure.
Las Vegas Sands (
LVS
) is under sharp downside pressure this morning following reports
that Sands China, the company's Macau unit, is under investigation
by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, according to a
Reuters wire report. The inquiry relates to alleged breaches of
regulations, according to the report.
Johnson & Johnson (
JNJ
) will revamp its Tylenol unit, the Wall Street Journal reports
tonight. Little other details were immediately known. Johnson &
Johnson issued another round of recalls of over-the-counter
medicines Tuesday, citing quality lapses similar to those
implicated in a series of recalls since 2009, the WSJ said.
BP Plc (
BP
) is lower in pre-market action. Lawyers suing the oil giant said
in a court filing that the company had used chemical dispersants to
fight last year's oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico and should
compensate the cleanup crew and residents harmed by those toxic
chemicals, according to AP.
CarMax (
KMX
) reports Q4 sales of $2.25 bln, up from $1.83 bln in the year ago
quarter. EPS was $0.39, up from $0.33 per share. The Street view
was $2.18 bln in sales and EPS of $0.38 per share.
Commodities are tilting higher as June gold contracts are up
0.7% while oil is up 1.3%. In energy ETFs, the United States Oil
Fund (USO) is up 1.2% to $42.14 and the United States Natural Gas
fund (UNG) is down 0.4%.