Futures fall as investors eye oil meet, presidential debate

[September 26, 2016]  By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were lower on Monday amid a volatile oil market and ahead of the first U.S. presidential debate.

Investors are awaiting a highly anticipated face-off between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at 9:00 p.m. ET (0100 GMT) in the run-up to the Nov. 8 election.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Monday showed half of the country's likely voters will rely on the debate to make their choice.

Oil prices rallied in volatile trading as the world's largest producers gathered in Algeria to potentially work out a plan to limit output. [O/R]

Investors are also awaiting the upcoming corporate earnings season, which will test lofty stock valuations. The benchmark S&P 500 index is trading at 17.3 times forward earnings compared with the 10-year median of 14.3, according to StarMine data.

Faced with a string of lackluster economic data, the Fed decided to keep rates unchanged last week, but left the door open for a possible hike in December.

A report on Monday is likely to show new single-family home sales dropped 8.8 percent to 600,000 in August from the month earlier. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Wall Street closed lower on Friday as energy stocks took a beating after Brent crude prices fell.

The U.S.-listed shares of Deutsche Bank <DB.N> plunged 5.25 percent premarket after a German magazine cited government sources saying Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out state assistance for the lender and rejected any interference in the ongoing U.S. justice department investigation.

Apple was down 0.8 percent after market research firm GfK claimed last week that sales of the new iPhones in Europe were well below the iPhone 6 pace.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S. September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Pfizer fell 0.93 percent after the drugmaker decided not to split into two publicly traded companies.

Chemical company Chemtura soared 17 percent to $33 after Germany's Lanxess offered to buy the company for $2.69 billion, including debt.

Futures snapshot at 7:19 a.m. ET:

Dow e-minis  were down 93 points, or 0.51 percent, with 21,814 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis  were down 10.25 points, or 0.47 percent, with 164,272 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 29 points, or 0.6 percent, on volume of 27,196 contracts.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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