Stocks poised to open higher
U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher on Tuesday morning, as investors welcomed news of a temporary reprieve to Huawei Technologies. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce gave Huawei another 90 days to continue buying from U.S. suppliers.
The department, however, added another 46 of Huawei’s affiliates to its economic blacklist on national security grounds. Huawei was banned from U.S. communications networks in May following an executive order from President Donald Trump.
According to Reuters, the “temporary general license” extension will permit the Chinese telecom giant to continue maintaining existing telecom networks for American customers before the company is fully blacklisted.
Huawei said the addition of new subsidiaries had “nothing to do with national security” and called the move “unjust treatment” and “politically motivated.”
At 6:30 a.m. ET, the Dow futures contract was up 26 points, or 0.10% to 26,144, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Futures contract climbed 15.88 points, or 0.21% to 7,743.38, while the S&P 500 futures contract climbed 4.37 points or 0.15% to 2,928.12.
Whistleblower accuses Disney of inflating revenue for years
MarketWatch is reporting that a former financial analyst at Disney (NYSE: DIS) has accused the entertainment giant of systematically inflating revenue by billions of dollars over several years in the parks-and-resorts business segment.
Sandra Kuba, who was at Disney for 18 years and worked in the revenue-operations department, says employees in the parks-and-resorts segment overstated their revenue by taking advantage of weaknesses in the company’s accounting software. She alleges the company may have overstated revenue by about $6 billion in 2008-2009.
Kuba has filed a series of whistleblower tips with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to the report. A Disney spokesperson said the company had reviewed the allegations and they were “utterly without merit.” Shares of Disney were little changed in premarket trade on Tuesday.
Retail earnings on deck
Several high-profile retail companies are scheduled to announce their quarterly financial results today. Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD), Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS), and TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) will report ahead of the opening bell, while Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) will announce after the close.
Analysts expect Home Depot to post earnings of $3.09 per share on revenue of $31.04 billion, while Kohl’s is expected to report earnings of $1.54 per share on revenue of $4.22 billion.
Wall Street forecasts TJX Companies will report earnings of $0.62 per share on revenue of $9.90 billion, while Toll Brothers is projected to have earned $0.83 per share on $1.70 billion revenue in the latest quarter.
