Wall Street futures point to a muted start
U.S. stock futures were little changed in the pre-market trading session on Tuesday following another session of volatility on Wall Street as traders continued to assess economic sanctions dropped on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. and its allies have aggressively escalated financial sanctions on Russia, including cutting off big Russian banks from SWIFT, a crucial system for international banking.
They have also frozen assets belonging to the Russian central bank, blocking Moscow from accessing nearly $640 million in foreign reserves.
Russian central bank shut the Moscow Stock Exchange on Monday, and hiked benchmark interest rates from 9.5% to 20% as the ruble fell to a historic low in extremely volatile trade.
As of 5 a.m. ET, futures for the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average were marked 33 points, or 0.1% lower to 33,873.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 36 points, or 0.26% to 14,191.25 while S&P 500 futures were unchanged.
On Monday, the Dow lost 166.15 points, or 0.49%, while the S&P 500 shed 10.71 points, or 0.24% to 4,373.94. The Nasdaq Composite gained 56.78 points, or 0.41% to 13,751.40.
Crude futures edge higher ahead of OPEC+ meeting
Meanwhile, crude futures ticked up as OPEC and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, prepare to meet on Wednesday to weigh raising production amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Crude traders will also be watching as members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) hold a meeting later today to discuss how they could keep the oil markets stable.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is also scheduled to release its report on U.S. crude oil inventories later in the day.
As of 5 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up $2.63, or 2.75% to $98.35 a barrel. Global Brent crude futures jumped $3.26, or 3.33% to $101.23 a barrel.
Zoom revenue growth slows after pandemic boom, stock falls
Shares of Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) – which rallied during the Covid-19 pandemic as people flocked to its videoconferencing application – are under after the company provided a downbeat revenue guidance for first quarter late Monday.
Zoom said in a press release that its fourth quarter revenue increased 21% on a year-over-year basis to $1.07 billion, while adjusted earnings came in at $1.29 per share
On average, analysts polled by Refinitiv had called for revenue of $1.05 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.06 per share.
For the current quarter, Zoom expects total revenue of between $1.07 billion to $1.08 billion, below Wall Street’s forecast of $1.1 billion.
As of writing, Zoom stock was down 1.92% to $130.05 per share in the pre-market trading session on Tuesday.
