Dow Jones futures today (Wednesday) were forecasting a 63-point decline from yesterday's close after a number of big technology firms underwhelmed with their earnings reports. The markets could be in for a long day as the tech sector now waits until Thursday for Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) to report its quarterly earnings.
Yesterday, the Dow Jones fell nearly 1%, or 180 points, as revenue figures from large caps International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) pulled down the index. The two stocks accounted for more than 100 points combined in the decline on the day.
IBM stock slumped more than 6.2% on news the company's revenue slipped for the 13th straight quarter. Meanwhile, United Technologies shares fell more than 7% after the company slashed its 2015 profit outlook. UTX stock had its worst one-day performance since 2001.
Top News in the Stock Market Today
Stock Market Today: This morning, investors will be keeping an eye on existing home sales and an update to domestic crude stocks from the Energy Information Administration. In addition, watch for June-ending earnings reports from a number of blue-chip components.
Oil Outlook:Oil prices were down on U.S. data suggesting a rise in domestic inventories. WTI crude futures for September fell 1.4% to hit $50.14 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil prices dipped 0.8% to hit $56.53 per barrel.
Market Debut: Pet food company Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc. announced it has set its per-share IPO price at $20. The company will sell 33.8 million shares during the offering, and shares will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol BUFF. Check out the rest of this week's IPOs here.
Earnings Reports: Companies reporting earnings today include Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), The Cheesecake Factory Inc. (Nasdaq: CAKE), Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), SanDisk Corp. (Nasdaq: SNDK), and Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX).
Pre-Market Movers in the Stock Market Today: AAPL, MSFT, GPRO
Pre-Market Movers No. 1, AAPL: Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) fell more than 6.5% after the company released its third-quarter earnings, which included debut numbers of its Apple Watch. The company beat Wall Street earnings and profit expectations but sold just 1.2 million units of the Apple Watch (according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, well below consensus expectations of 4 million units). Yesterday, the company was also affected when its App Store, Apple Music, iTunes Store, and some other services were offline during a three-hour outage. The company did not specify why its networks were down.
Pre-Market Movers No. 2,MSFT: Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) slumped nearly 4% on news the company reported its worst quarterly loss in company history. The firm reported a $3.2 billion net loss that included charges related to a recent restructuring. Despite the decline, the company did beat top- and bottom-line estimates after excluding these charges.
Pre-Market Movers No. 3, GPRO: Shares of camera maker GoPro Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRO) were up more than 1.5% in pre-market hours after the company beat Wall Street earnings estimates. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.35, beating Wall Street expectations of $0.26. The company also announced its products are now sold in more than 40,000 stores around the world.
Stocks to Watch No. 1, LOCK: Shares of identity-theft monitoring firm LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) fell to a 52-week low on Tuesday, finishing the day down more than 49% after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it has charged the company with failure to protect consumer data. According to a statement, LifeLock allegedly violated its 2010 settlement with the FTC and 35 state attorneys general by continuing to make false claims about its identity theft protection services.
Stocks to Watch No. 2, FCX: Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) recovered yesterday, adding 4.4% after gold prices rebounded from a multi-day losing streak. But the stock will remain in focus today as gold prices were down this morning.
Stocks to Watch No. 3, THOR: Shares of heart device manufacturer Thoratec Corp. (Nasdaq: THOR) added nearly 18% on news that St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) is in advanced talks to purchase its smaller rival. Shares of STJ were relatively unchanged on news of the pending deal.
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.
