LDN - Business

Stock futures slightly higher ahead of Citi results

[July 15, 2019] By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stock futures extended last week's gains to trade slightly higher on Monday in the run up to the start of second-quarter earnings reports, beginning with Citigroup.

Shares of the U.S. lender were up 0.7% in premarket trade. It will report results at around 8 a.m. ET and will be followed by other Wall Street big banks such as JPMorgan <JPM.N>, Goldman Sachs <GS.N> and Wells Fargo <WFC.N> on Tuesday.

As companies start reporting quarterly results, investors will look for the impact of the long-drawn U.S.-China trade dispute on corporate profit.

Other companies slated for this week include Bank of America Corp <BAC.N>, Netflix Inc <NFLX.O>, Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> and Honeywell International Inc <HON.N>.

Profits from S&P 500 companies is expected to dip 0.4% year-over-year, the first quarterly decline in three years, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Last week, gains in stocks were powered by comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that reassured investors that an interest rate cut was highly likely at the central bank's policy meeting later this month.

The S&P 500 <.SPX> closed above 3,000 points for the first time on Friday as investors rebuilt their bets of a sharp 50 basis-point rate cut in the July 30-31 meeting.

Also helping the mood was upbeat data out of China. Quarterly growth at the world's second largest economy beat analysts' forecasts, while June reports on industrial production, retail sales and urban investment were also well above expectations.

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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

At 6:53 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up 39 points, or 0.14%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> were up 4.25 points, or 0.14% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 8 points, or 0.1%.

Among stocks, Boeing Co <BA.N> fell 1.4% after a report that its 737 Max jet may stay grounded until early 2020 as the company seeks to fix its hazardous flight-control software.

General Electric Co <GE.N> slipped marginally after brokerage UBS downgraded shares of the industrial conglomerate to "neutral" from "buy", according to traders.

Shares of paper packaging companies Westrock Co <WRK.N>, Packaging Corp of America <PKG.N> and International Paper Co <IP.N> fell between 3.3% and 2.4% and were the top losers on the benchmark index before the bell.

KeyBanc downgraded their shares, citing risks from a further fall in containerboard and pulp prices.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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