Mixed open ahead for stocks
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed start on Thursday morning, as investors braced for another day of first-quarter earnings from some of the biggest companies on Wall Street.
Among the companies scheduled to report earnings before the opening bell today are 3M Company (NYSE: MMM), Comcast Corp (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY), United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), and Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV).
Those reporting after the close include Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F), Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC).
At 6:51 a.m. ET, futures on the blue-chip Dow pointed to a loss of 113 points, or 0.43% to 26,428.0. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 12.63 points, or 0.16% to 7,860.38 while those on the S&P 500 were down 1.13 points, or 0.04% to 2,929.62.
Crude oil prices rise on Russian exports suspension
Oil prices jumped early Thursday as some European countries suspended oil imports from Russia, citing quality concerns. Belarus, Poland, and Germany have halted shipments of Russian oil via Druzhba pipeline, saying it is of poor quality and contaminated.
At 4:51 a.m. ET, Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was up $0.65 to $75.22 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, jumped $0.20 to $66.09 a barrel.
Tesla posts big Q1 loss
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) announced late Wednesday that it had loss of $702 million or $4.10 per share in its latest quarter, while revenue fell 37% from the earlier-year period to $4.54 billion. Excluding special items, the automaker lost $494 million, or $2.90 per share, versus a loss of $3.35 per share in the first quarter of last year.
Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had expected Tesla to post an adjusted loss of $0.69 per share on sales of $5.19 billion. Shares of the California-based company were down $3.39, or 1.31% to $255.27 in premarket trade.
Economic data
Investors are also keeping an eye on durable goods orders for the February and weekly initial jobless claims set to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Durable goods orders are expected to have risen 0.8% after declining 1.6% in January.
Nondefense capital goods orders (excluding aircraft) are expected to have expanded 0.1% after contracting 0.1%. Meanwhile, economists expect jobless claims for the week ended on April 19 might to have increased to 200,000 from 192,000 prior.
