Futures little changed after Dow, Nasdaq hit records

[December 21, 2016]  By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday, a day after the Nasdaq Composite Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs, with the blue-chip index closing just 25 points shy of the 20,000 mark.

Investors have said that breaching 20,000 could mean that a recent rally on Wall Street would continue. The Dow, first calculated in 1896, hit 10,000 in 1999.

U.S. stocks have been on a roll since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the Dow up 9 percent and the S&P 500 6 percent on bets that President-elect Donald Trump's plans for deregulation and infrastructure spending will boost the economy.

However, there are concerns that the recent rally has made stocks too expensive. The S&P 500 is trading at about 17 times expected 12-month earnings, well above the 10-year average of 14, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Volumes have been muted in the last full week of trading before the year-end holiday season, subjecting the market to pronounced movements amid a lack of any major economic data.

Oil edged up, driven by expectations for a decline in U.S. crude inventories and bringing price gains for December to 10 percent. [O/R]

Scheduled economic data includes existing home sales for November, which likely dropped 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 5.5 million. The data is expected at 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT).

Nike shares rose 2.4 percent to $53.02 in premarket trading, a day after the world's largest footwear maker reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

FedEx fell 3.8 percent to $191.25 after the package delivery company's quarterly results missed expectations.

Chipmaker InvenSense jumped 16.8 percent to $12.66 after people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp is in talks to buy the company.

Futures snapshot at 7:10 a.m. ET:

Dow e-minis  were up 1 point, or 0.01 percent, with 11,054 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis  were down 2.25 points, or 0.1 percent, with 45,914 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4 points, or 0.08 percent, on volume of 7,241 contracts.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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