Cautious open seen for U.S. stocks
U.S. stock index futures are set to for a cautious open today as market participants await quarterly earnings reports from some of the biggest U.S. companies. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), and United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) will report quarterly earnings before the opening bell.
At 6:20 a.m. ET, futures on the blue-chip Dow dropped 14.5 points, or 0.05% to 26,498.5. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were down 5.13 points, or 0.07% to 7,729.62 while those on the S&P 500 pointed to losses of 2.38 points, or 0.08% to 2,910.12.
Oil surges as U.S. ends Iran waivers
Oil prices rallied to nearly six-month highs on Tuesday, after Trump administration announced it would soon impose sanctions on any country that will buy oil from Iran. Brent crude oil futures jumped 0.7% to $74.57 a barrel, their highest since November.
Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate, jumped 0.8% to $66.05 a barrel. On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the end of waivers from U.S. sanctions that had been granted to eight countries including China, India, Turkey, Japan, and South Korea.
Facebook names Jennifer Newstead as general counsel to replace Colin Stretch
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) announced on Monday it is appointing Jennifer Newstead as its general counsel. Newstead is a top lawyer at the U.S. Department of State, and Facebook expects her to oversee its global legal functions at a time when regulators around the world are considering restrictions on social media networks and big tech companies.
California-based Facebook has also appointed John Pinette to serve as vice president of global communications. Shares of the company, which ended Monday’s regular session at $181.44, were little changed in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Elon Musk touts robotaxis
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) chief executive Elon Musk announced at an investor event on Monday that the electric car giant will start operating a fleet of 1 million autonomous robotaxis by the end of 2020. Musk said he believes regulators will approve ride-hailing in some areas for self-driving cars.
“I feel very confident in predicting autonomous robotaxis next year,” the Silicon Valley billionaire said. Shares of Tesla were down $4.29, or 1.63% to $258.46 in premarket trade on Tuesday.
