Stock futures edge up following mixed retail data
Stock futures edged higher Tuesday as investors digested mixed U.S. retail sales data and several corporate earnings reports. The latest earnings from Johnson & Johnson and JPMorgan Chase both beat Wall Street’s expectations.
KEEPING SCORE: Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,008 as of 9:20 a.m. Eastern time. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,973, while Nasdaq 100 futures added eight points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,927.
SPENDING BAROMETER: The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that retail sales rose just 0.2 percent last month, held back by a sharp drop at building materials and garden supply stores. Sales also fell at restaurants and at auto dealers. The latest figures suggest that Americans are reluctant to spend freely, which could slow growth in the April-June quarter.
BEATING THE STREET: JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank by assets, said Tuesday its second-quarter earnings fell 9 percent as revenue at its investment banking and mortgage businesses dropped. Even so, the results trumped the forecasts of financial analysts. JPMorgan’s stock rose $1.61, or 2.9 percent, to $57.90 in premarket trading.
GOOD MEDICINE: Johnson & Johnson’s second-quarter profit jumped 13 percent, aided by strong sales of several new medicines. The results topped analysts’ expectations. The maker of Band-Aids, medi- cal devices and biologic drugs raised its 2014 profit forecast for the second time this year. J&J rose 14 cents to $105.52 in premarket trading.
OVERSEAS MARKETS: European stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE 100 were little changed. France’s CAC-40 fell 0.1 percent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 percent after a central bank policy meet- ing ended as expected with no changes to Tokyo’s ultra-loose monetary policy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5 percent and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9 percent.
BONDS & COMMODITIES: In the market for U.S. government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed at 2.55 percent. The price of oil slipped 0.9 percent to $99.98.