It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, which is to say stock markets are all tucked up in their beds. Futures have been sleepy for the past couple of days as year-end approaches.
This year is nothing like 2018, when markets where choppy going into the holidays. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, for instance, were up less than 0.1%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite futures were flat.
Overseas markets were calmer too. At least, calmer than recent weeks when Brexit and Hong Kong protests weighed on investor sentiment. The Hang Seng Index was down 0.3%. The FTSE 100 Index was up 0.2%.
Not even President Donald Trump’s impeachment roiled stock futures Thursday. Of course, the market is forward looking and the odds the Senate removes the president from office are very long. Investors can track odds on this sort of thing. Bettors have to put up more than $1,000 to win $100 in a wager that the Senate will convict in its trial.
A couple of stocks are moving on earnings news.
Micron Technology (ticker: MU) shares were up 3.8% in premarket trading. The computer-memory company beat Wall Street estimates when reporting its earnings Wednesday evening. Forward guidance was below analyst expectations, but analysts think demand for memory has reached its low point.
Herman Miller (MLHR) stock was down 11.5% in premarket trading. The furniture company met Wall Street expectations for its fiscal second quarter, reported Wednesday evening. But earnings guidance for the coming quarter came in at about 70 cents a share, a nickel below Wall Street consensus estimates.
And a couple of stocks are moving after Wall Street ratings changes.
Brokerage firm Barclays upgraded shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Thursday morning to the equivalent of Buy from Hold. Both stocks are up a little in premarket trading, with respective gains of about 1% and 0.9%.
