MW: U.S. stocks: Futures bruised by continued oil selloff
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to a red open on Wall Street on Friday, as a further slump in oil prices continued to dampen the investment mood and fanned fears of an imminent stock-market correction.
Later in the day, reports on consumer sentiment and producer prices will be watched by investors, after surprisingly strong retail-sales data came in on Thursday.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJH5, -0.67% lost 81 points, or 0.5%, to 17,428, while those for the S&P 500 index SPH5, -0.42% slid 7.90 points, or 0.4%, to 2,016.10. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 NDH5, -0.77% gave up 21.25 points, or 0.5%, to 4,211.50.
Nour Al-Hammoury, chief market strategist at ADS Securities, said the S&P could fall to as low as 2,000 if the index breaks below the current support level at 2,019.
Additionally, he noted that the gold/oil ratio — which he argued is negatively correlated with the S&P and Dow average — has spiked, suggesting that a “major correction in the global equities is under way, especially in S&P500.” Read: Oil to take down the S&P 500 — but there’s still no better time to invest in energy
Stocks on Thursday broke a three-day losing streak, after the robust consumer-spending data.
Oil blues: Oil futures continued their rout on Friday, with crude oil for January CLF5, -0.90% briefly sliding below $59 a barrel for the first time in more than five-and-a-half years, after the International Energy Agency cut its 2015 global oil-demand growth view by 230,000 barrels a day. Futures pared losses later in the morning to trade at $59.39 a barrel. Brent LCOF5, -0.61% was also moving lower in London, down 38 cents at $63.30 a barrel.
U.S. oil companies were feeling the pinch from lower energy prices, with shares of Halliburton Co. HAL, +0.29% down 0.8% ahead of the bell, Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, +0.60% off 0.6% and Marathon Oil Corp. MRO, -0.68% 2.9% lower.
Economic news: The highlight on the data calendar is the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for December, due at 9:55 a.m. Eastern Time, which will be closely watched to gauge the strength of the U.S. economy.
Investors will also be watching the producer-price index out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
Stocks to watch: Several tech majors were down ahead of the open, with shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.51% off 0.5%, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.58% 0.6% lower and Facebook inc FB, -0.42% down 0.5%.
Abbott Laboratories ABT, +0.20% lost 2% in premarket action after the company said it completed the takeover of Russian pharmaceutical company Veropharm.
Adobe Systems Inc. ADBE, +7.54% rallied 7.5% ahead of the open after the company late Thursday said it’s buying privately-held stock photography website, Fotolia, for around $800 million.
Other markets: Asian markets closed mixed, with the Nikkei NIK, +0.66% breaking a three-day losing streak. European stocks were mired in deep red. In currencies, the ruble USDRUB, +1.89% hit a fresh record low against the dollar, leading the Bank of Russia to intervene. Metals were mostly on the decline.
