FOMC meeting kicks off today
U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Tuesday as market participants awaited the start of a two-day meeting between policymakers at the Federal Reserve.
The central bank is expected to trim interest rates for the second time this year, likely by another quarter point, to shield the economy from risks arising from a global slowdown as well as the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.
At 5:56 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were down 40 points, or about 0.15% to 27,040. Futures on the broader S&P 500 declined 3.62 points, or around 0.12% to 2,997.88 while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 lost 14.62 points, or roughly 0.19% to 7,864.88.
Netflix bags global streaming rights to Seinfeld
Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) has acquired the global rights to the Seinfeld, a classic 90s sitcom. The streaming giant made the announcement on Monday, saying all 180 episodes of the show will be available to stream worldwide starting in 2021.
Netflix struck the five-year deal with Sony Pictures Television, which controls the distribution rights to Seinfeld. California-based Netflix recently lost two of its most-watched shows, The Office and Friends to NBCUniversal and HBO Max respectively.
Shares of Netflix were little changed in premarket trading on Tuesday.
Investors sue AT&T for allegedly faking DirecTV Now numbers
AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) faces a class action lawsuit from a group of investors who claim the company pressured employees into creating fake accounts for DirecTV Now streaming service to inflate subscriber numbers ahead of its $85bn merger with Time Warner.
The lawsuit alleges that AT&T’s senior management “taught and actively encouraged” employees to “convert activation fees that customers traditionally had to pay to upgrade their phones into DirecTV Now subscriptions by waiving the fee, but charging the customer anyway.”
It was filed in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York on Friday, by union pension fund stockholders and individual investors. Shares of AT&T were down less than 1 percent in premarket trade.
