US Stock Futures Edge Lower; Fed In Focus

September 16, 2014

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Pre-open movers

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day meeting today. The producer price index for August will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 18 points to 16,925.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 1.70 points to 1,974.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 5.75 points to 4,019.75.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.37%, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.47%. German DAX 30 index fell 0.31%, French CAC 40 Index fell 0.46% and London’s FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.40%. The annual rate of inflation in the UK declined to 1.5% in August, versus 1.6% in July.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average tumbled 0.23%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipped 0.91%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.82% and India’s BSE Sensex tumbled 1.21%.

Broker Recommendation
Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Terex (NYSE: TEX) from Hold to Buy. The target price for Terex is set to $40.

Terex’s shares fell 6.43% to close at $32.47 yesterday.

Breaking news

Humana (NYSE: HUM) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a $2 billion share repurchase authorization with an expiration date of December 31, 2016, replacing its previous $1 billion share repurchase authorization (of which approximately $782 million was outstanding after $118 million of share repurchases to date in the third quarter of 2014). To read the full news, click here.
Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ: HBAN), through its subsidiary Huntington National Bank, has completed its acquisition of 24 Bank of America branches in Michigan, Huntington announced today. To read the full news, click here.
Graham (NYSE: GHM) announced today that it received two new orders from two U.S. nuclear utilities. To read the full news, click here.
A multi-year contract renewal between DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) and Scripps Networks Interactive^® (NYSE: SNI) improves DISH customers’ access to Scripps Networks’ entire content portfolio, including new and expanded digital rights. To read the full news, click here.