At the open: TSX starts lower as energy stocks drag
April 25, 2018US STOCKS-Wall St set for gains as tech earnings impress, yields pull back
April 26, 2018* Oil prices drop more than 2.5 percent
* Energy stocks lead premarket losers
* Autodesk, Gap fall after results
By Medha Singh
May 25 (Reuters) – A steep drop in oil prices anddisappointing corporate results pressured U.S. stock marketfutures on Friday, souring sentiment at the end of a weekdominated by concerns over North Korea and trade tensions withChina.
Crude oil prices declined more than 2.5 percent, or $2 perbarrel, after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they were ready toease supply curbs that have pushed prices to their highest since2014. O/R
Energy stocks were the top percentage losers among the S&P500 .SPX components trading premarket, capturing 16 of the top20 percentage decliners.
Exxon XOM.N and ChevronCVX.N both fell more than 1percent. Service firms Schlumberger SLB.N , HalliburtonHAL.N , and producers Occidental PetroleumOXY.N andConocoPhillips COP.N were down between 1.7 percent and 2.2percent.
The S&P energy index .SPNY closed down 1.7 percent onThursday, while the main indexes ended only slightly lower afterrecovering from what market participants said was a knee-jerkreaction to President Donald Trump cancelling a planned summit.
North Korea said on Friday it was still open to talks withthe United States, saying it hoped the “Trump formula” couldresolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons program. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1SV6US
“With the long weekend ahead low volume should be expected,paving the way for a range bound trading session,” said PeterCardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securitiesin New York.
Markets are closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
“When you have light volume is that sometimes it can have alarger impact on the market versus when they (volume) areheavy,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading andderivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
At 8:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 56 points, or0.23 percent. S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 7.25 points, or0.27 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were down 3 points,or 0.04 percent.
Among other stocks, Foot LockerFL.N surged 14.2 percentafter it reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit. NikeNKE.N , for whom the footwear retailer is often seen as aleading indicator, gained 1.1 percent. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1SW468
Gap GPS.N plunged 7 percent after quarterly same-storesales came below estimates. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1SW46L
AutodeskADSK.O fell 5 percent after the AutoCAD ownerforecast second-quarter profit below expectations. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1SV63O
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speakon “Financial Stability and Central Bank Transparency” at aconference in Stockholm, Sweden at 09:20 a.m. ET. (Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; editing by PatrickGraham and Sriraj Kalluvila) (([email protected]; within U.S. +1646 223 8780,outside U.S. +91 80 6749 1130; Reuters Messaging:[email protected]))
Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/article/us-stockswall-st-set-to-open-lower-as-oil-prices-slump-20180525-00367