Stock Futures Little Changed as Wall Street Watches ECB, Hurricane Irma
New York (Sept 7) Stock futures were little changed on Thursday, Sept. 7, settling down after modest gains a day earlier and instead were waiting for direction from the European Central Bank.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.04%, S&P 500 futures were flat, and Nasdaq futures added 0.06%.
European investors are setting up for the rates decision and press conference from the ECB in Frankfurt amid some speculation that President Mario Draghi could offer the first definitive signal of a wind-down in the Bank's €60 billion program of quantitative easing. Markets are not pricing in a change of rates policy.
Fresh inflation forecasts from the bank's economists, which will be released during Draghi's press conference, are expected to trim June's projections of a 2017 average of 1.5% and a 2018 dip to 1.3%.
The economic calendar in the U.S. on Thursday includes weekly Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m. ET, Productivity and Costs for the second quarter at 8:30 a.m., and Oil Inventories for the week ended Sept. 1, at 11 a.m.
Wall Street posted modest gains on Wednesday after President Donald Trump made a surprise move by siding with the Democrats on a deal to extend the debt ceiling to mid-December. The proposed extension is tied to a Hurricane Harvey relief package. House Speaker Paul Ryan had earlier called the proposal "unworkable" and accused Democrats of playing politics.
Hurricane Irma, meanwhile, kept a cap on any bigger market rally on Wednesday. Irma, the latest weather risk, made landfall in the Caribbean earlier Wednesday and has the potential to reach Florida by the weekend. A state of emergency has been declared in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Miami is preparing for its largest evacuation in more than a decade Thursday as the U.S. National Hurricane Cents warned that Hurricane Irma, potentially the most powerful storm to hit the American mainland since 1992, was maintaining its category 5 wind speed as it bears down on the south Florida coast.
Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents in some coastal areas of Dade County, the metropolitan area of Miami, to move inland and ordered local schools closed for the remainder of the week. The evacuation order, which will take effect at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, is the first since Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and is expected to affect around 150,000 people.
•Miami Orders Mandatory Evacuation as Hurricane Irma Bears Down on Florida Coast
Activist investor Nelson Peltz late Wednesday released a 93-page white paper detailing his campaign for change at Procter & Gamble (PG) . Some of those ideas included plans to eliminate an "insular" culture, increase M&A activities and restructure the packaged goods company into three global business units. The activist investor, who owns about $3.5 billion in Procter & Gamble shares, says he wants to eliminate what he sees as a "suffocating bureaucracy." The plan comes as Peltz seeks one seat on the company's board.
In response, Procter & Gamble said Peltz had an "outdated and misinformed" view of the company's operations and that his paper held "nothing substantive." The company reiterated confidence in its current plan and board.
GoPro Inc. (GPRO) surged 15% in premarket trading after guiding for a surprise profit in its third quarter. Analysts had expected a net loss of 5 cents a share over the quarter. The action camera company also said it expects revenue at the "high end" of a previous range of $290 million to $310 million, surpassing consensus of $304 million. Chief operating officer CJ Prober said in a statement that "consumer demand for GoPro products is strong."
General Mills Inc. (GIS) moved lower on Thursday after issuing guidance for its fiscal year ending May 2018. Adjusted earnings per share are targeted to rise 1% to 2% on a constant currency basis. Organic net sales are expected to dip 1% to 2% and total segment operating profit in constant currency to come in flat to 1% higher.
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