Yahoo Finance Stocks - U.S. Futures Flat; BoA Misses; EU Probes Amazon
Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a flat opening bell on Wednesday after Bank of America failed to stem concerns about the outlook for the banking sector with its latest quarterly numbers.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was down 0.3% after it reported earnings per share of $0.74 on revenue of $23.1 billion. As with results from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) earlier this week, relatively strong consumer banking offset weakness in its markets-based businesses. The spate of reports has generally shown upbeat retail banking results but closing net margins, causing investors to worry about the impact of the Federal Reserve cutting rates this year.
The market's focus switches away from finance after the bell, when Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) post their earnings. There was negative news out of Europe earlier as the European Commission opened up a formal antitrust investigation against Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), relating to its treatment of independent retailers. Amazon fell 0.3%.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose 10 points or 0.1% by 6:52 AM ET (10:52 GMT), while Dow futures inched up 13 points or 0.1% and S&P 500 futures gained 1 point or 0.1%.
Trade developments reverted to being a minor negative for sentiment after U.S. President Donald Trump said there was a “long way to go” on a trade deal with China. Trump also suggested that the U.S. could impose sanctions on another $325 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) fell 5.3% in premarket trade after the Swedish-based maker of telecom network gear warned that it would take a hit to its gross margins as it tries to recover lost ground against China's Huawei. Ericsson is seen as one of the main beneficiaries of the U.S. administration’s targeting of Huawei.
CSX (NASDAQ:CSX) slumped 7.5% after its second-quarter earnings missed estimates, while United Continental (NASDAQ:UAL) inched up 0.4% after its financial results surpassed expectations, with profit up more than 50% from a year ago.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) jumped 5.9% after the U.S. Justice Department asked an appeals court to pause an antitrust ruling against it.
On the data front, building permits and housing starts for June are out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.5% to $57.92 a barrel, while gold futures slipped 0.5% to $1,403.65 a troy ounce. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 97.002.
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