U.S. stock futures moved higher today, as calm appeared to return to markets following a Greek-led stock rout that drove Wall Street to its worst session of the year yesterday.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent to 17,582, while those for the S&P 500 index were higher by 0.5 percent at 2,060. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index gained 0.3 percent to 4,392.
Greece will not pay a 1.6 billion euro loan installment due the International Monetary Fund today, Reuters reported, citing a Greek government official, after talks between Athens and its creditors broke down over the weekend when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum on the austerity plan.
Stocks tumbled yesterday to wipe out gains for the year as the threat of a Greek exit from the eurozone jolted markets. The Dow lost 2 percent to 17,596.35, hitting its lowest level since February 2. The S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent to 2,057.64, marking its largest one-day percentage decline since April 10, 2014.
DATA:
U.S. house prices rose 1.1 percent in April, supported by the spring sales market, with gains in all the cities tracked by the Case-Shiller 20-city composite index released today. With seasonal adjustment, prices rose 0.3 percent, the report said. Home prices in April were up 4.9 percent from a year earlier, slightly slower than annual growth of 5 percent seen in March.
A June reading of the Chicago purchasing managers index is expected at 9:30 a.m.
The conference board’s report on consumer confidence for June is slated to release at 10 a.m., and economists polled by MarketWatch expect the reading to rise to 97.5 from 95.4 in May.
MOVERS:
Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO) soared 36 percent after saying that Celgene Corp. will pay it about $1 billion as part of a 10-year partnership to study cures for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Celgene fell 0.8 percent.
ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) rose 0.9 percent to $43.43. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $209.2 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.
Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) added 1.7 percent to $40.63 after saying it will sell its U.S. security services business AlliedBarton to French investment firm Wendel for about $1.67 billion.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) inched up 0.7 percent after agreeing to sell its European private-equity finance business to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. for about $2.2 billion.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 0.7 percent after saying it will exit the ad-sales business and has contracted AOL (NYSE:AOL) to handle all its ad sales across Microsoft’s properties.
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) gained 0.8 percent after it said it’s expanding its operations in Australia as part of a push to sell more commercial insurance globally.
Emerson Electric (NYSE:EMR) added 3.4 percent after announcing plans to spin off its Network Power unit and explore options for other businesses.
COMMODITIES:
Gold futures slipped 0.8 percent to $1,169.50 an ounce.
Crude-oil futures added 0.6 percent to $58.67 a barrel.