Futures edge lower after Wall Street’s record close; Boeing drops
U.S. stocks were set to open little changed from record closing levels on Tuesday as investors took pause from a four-day rally, while Boeing was set for its lowest open since August after the crisis around its 737 MAX jet deepened.
Boeing (BA.N) shares fell 1.1% premarket, set for their fourth straight session of losses, as the planemaker said it would suspend production of its grounded aircraft in January in its biggest assembly-line halt in more than two decades.
The news dulled the mood after three straight days of record highs for the U.S. stock indexes, spurred by cooling trade tensions between the world’s top two economies and upbeat economic data from China.
The S&P 500 .SPX has gained over 27% so far this year, rising in nine of the last 10 weeks, on expectations of a U.S.-China trade deal, a dovish Federal Reserve and upbeat economic indicators.
An interim trade agreement was announced on Friday, but some investors held off on big bets amid skepticism about the lack of details.
“U.S. stocks could start feeling trade optimism fatigue as we near the holidays,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at online trading broker OANDA in New York, adding that a significant pullback was unlikely.
At 9:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up just 6 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 2.25 points, or 0.07% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 8.75 points, or 0.10%.
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) rose 0.8% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the U.S. drugmaker and Astellas Pharma Inc’s (4503.T) prostate cancer therapy.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) gained 0.9% after reports that Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to “overweight”.
Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) rose 1.9% after Wedbush raised its rating on the stock. Other chipmakers including Intel Corp (INTC.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) were also up marginally.
While there is no major economic news due this week, a historic vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, likely to result in the impeachment of President Donald Trump, poses another risk for investment decisions in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Focus now turns to industrial production data for November, due at 09:15 a.m. ET, to gauge the health of the U.S. economy, which has so far been resilient despite trade tensions.
