All
the major U.S. indexes were set for a more than 1% weekly drop,
their first since the week ended Oct. 1, as hot inflation
numbers sapped investor sentiment and halted an earnings-driven
streak of record closing highs.
Johnson & Johnson jumped 4.7% in premarket trading after the
drugmaker said it is planning to break up into two companies
focused on its consumer health division and the large
pharmaceuticals unit.
Shares of mega-cap technology and communication stocks including
Google-owner Alphabet Inc, Tesla Inc, Microsoft Corp, Meta
Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, Apple Inc and
Amazon.com also inched up.
Tesla's top boss Elon Musk sold more shares of the electric car
maker, regulatory filings showed, after offloading about $5
billion worth of stock following a poll he posted on Twitter.
Rising price pressures across the globe have been a top concern
for market participants, with focus now shifting towards how
consumer spending would fare as the holiday shopping season
approaches.
A survey from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment
in early November and the Labor Department's monthly JOLTS
report is due at 10 am ET.
At 06:48 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 109 points, or 0.3%, S&P
500 e-minis were up 10.5 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were up 41.25 points, or 0.26%.
U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding slipped 0.4% after
the e-commerce giant said its sales - or gross merchandise value
- during the Singles Day event grew at the slowest rate ever,
underscoring the headwinds for China's tech firms.
Biogen Inc rose 2.1% after late-stage studies found that its
Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm significantly lowered blood levels of
an abnormal form of the protein tau.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are
expected to hold a virtual summit on Monday, sources told
Reuters, amid tensions over trade, human rights and military
activities.
(Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; editing by Arpan
Varghese)
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