U.S. stock futures dip with oil prices; all eyes on Dow 20,000

[January 09, 2017]  By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower as oil prices dipped on Monday, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average came tantalizingly close to 20,000 on Friday.

The Dow hit 19,999.63 points on Friday after a late pop in Apple and other technology stocks. Wall Street has rallied since Donald Trump won the U.S. election in November as investors bet he will stimulate the economy with lower taxes and infrastructure spending.

But the rally has led to lofty valuations – the S&P 500 is trading at about 17 times expected earnings, compared to its 10-year average of 14. That could make investors cautious as they gear up for the fourth-quarter earnings season.

The first peek into how companies fared last quarter will be provided later this week by big U.S. banks, including JPMorgan <JPM.N>, Bank of America <BAC.N> and Wells Fargo <WFC.N>.

S&P 500 companies overall are expected to post a 6.1 percent increase in profit in the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Oil prices fell 1.8 percent on Monday as signs of growing U.S. production outweighed optimism that other producers were sticking to a deal to cut supplies in a bid to bolster prices. [O/R]

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly before the closing bell in New York, U.S., January 6, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Meanwhile, investors looking for more insight on the future path of interest rates await a speech at 9:00 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) by Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Federal Reserve bank.

Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart is scheduled to speak later in the day.

Merrimack's shares rose more than 40 percent to $5.06 premarket after the company agreed to sell its oncology assets to France's Ipsen SA in a deal worth about $1 billion.

Vertex Pharma  lost 5.2 percent to $75.25 after the company gave a full-year revenue forecast for its Orkambi cystic fibrosis treatment, which an Evercore ISI analyst said appeared to miss analysts' expectations.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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