Stocks – U.S. Futures Lower; Virus Fears Weigh as Earnings Continue

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com – U.S. stock markets are set to open lower, as the deadly coronavirus in China continues to weigh on sentiment, overshadowing strong earnings from retail giant Amazon.com (NASDAQ:).

At 7:10 AM ET (1210 GMT), futures for the traded 14 points, or 0.4%, lower, futures for the down 36 points, or 0.4%, while the futures contract fell 125 points, or 0.4%. These are on track for a second straight down week, but January is still likely to be a positive month, the fifth in a row.

The nationwide death toll in China’s coronavirus outbreak has climbed above 200, with nearly 10,000 infected, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the coronavirus a global health emergency.

The organization stopped short of recommending travel and trade restrictions with China, and also backed the efforts of the world’s second largest economy to contain the outbreak.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has taken a stab at putting some estimates on the impact on growth from the efforts to control the spread of the virus.

The investment banking giant revised down its estimate for China’s GDP growth in 2020 to 5.5% from 5.9% previously. It also estimated that U.S. GDP growth would be hit by 0.4% in the first quarter.

On Thursday official data showed the U.S. economy grew by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, resulting in full-year growth of 2.3% in 2019.

Looking at the corporate sector, Amazon (NASDAQ:) is set to be today’s standout performer after the e-commerce giant reported sales soared over the holiday season, rising 21% from the previous year. Shares traded over 8% higher premarket.

IBM (NYSE:) will also be in the spotlight after the information technology company announced CEO Ginni Rometty will retire at the end of 2020 after almost 40 years with the company, to be replaced by Arvind Krishna.

Shares in Visa (NYSE:) fell premarket after the world’s largest payment network posted disappointing numbers for its first quarter and said it sees muted revenue growth this year, while Amgen (NASDAQ:) shares also dropped after the biotech drug maker disappointed with its 2020 outlook.

Caterpillar (NYSE:) reported better than expected fourth quarter earnings Friday, but this result was based largely on successful cost cutting as revenue fell short of expectations, as did 2020 guidance.

Economic data due for release Friday include core PCE price and personal spending data at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), Michigan consumer sentiment numbers at 10:00 AM ET (1500 GMT) and Baker Hughes total rig count at 1:00 PM ET (1800 GMT).

AT 07:10 AM ET (1210 GMT), futures rose 0.6% to $52.45 and the international benchmark contract climbed 0.3% to $57.48.

fell 0.3% and the , which tracks the greenback against a basket of developed market peers, fell 0.1%.

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