LDN - Business

Futures flat with focus on oil, Trump's Asia tour

[November 06, 2017] By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were flat on Monday following a record-setting week as investors focused on President Donald Trump's Asia tour and oil prices, which jumped to its highest in over two years after Saudi Arabia cracked down on corruption.

- Saudi Arabia's future king tightened his grip on power by arresting royals, ministers and investors, including billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal.

- The news stirred fears of Middle Eastern money pulling out of global financial markets. Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding, has stakes in Citigroup and Twitter, among others.

- Investors also kept an eye on developments from President Donald Trump's Asia tour. Trump is on the second day of a 12-day trip that is focusing on North Korea's nuclear missile programs and trade.

- The market will also keep an eye on a speech by New York Fed President William Dudley later in the session. The influential Fed member is preparing to retire earlier than planned, according to sources. His speech is expected at 12:10 p.m. ET (1610 GMT).

- Dudley's departure next year would likely come after U.S. Trump tapped Fed Governor Jerome Powell to succeed current Fed Chair Janet Yellen in February.

- A surge in shares of heavyweight Apple helped push up major Wall Street indexes on Friday, as investors also assessed a mixed U.S. labor market report.

- U.S. job growth accelerated in October, the Labor Department said. But wages grew at their slowest annual pace in more than 1-1/2 years.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

- The jobs data wrapped up a very busy week for financial markets that included the unveiling of a Republican tax reform bill.

- U.S. companies continue to report their quarterly earnings. With more than 400 of S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings for the third quarter are expected to have climbed 8 percent, compared to an expectation of a 5.9 percent rise at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

- Shares of Qualcomm were up 3.1 percent in premarket trading after Broadcom said it has offered to buy the smartphone chip supplier for $103 billion.

- Advanced Micro Devices rose 5.1 percent on a report that the company plans to team up with Intel to form a personal computer chip unit. Intel was up 0.45 percent.

- Sprint fell 12.1 percent after the wireless provider and T-Mobile called off their planned merger.

Futures snapshot at 6:57 a.m. ET:

- Dow e-minis were up 18 points, or 0.08 percent, with 19,981 contracts changing hands.

- S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.75 points, or 0.03 percent, with 119,608 contracts traded.

- Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 2 points, or 0.03 percent, on volume of 27,765 contracts.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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