Stock futures are narrowly mixed, having improved slightly from
moderate losses seen earlier in pre-market trading. Wall Street is
drifting ahead of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book release and
President Obama's healthcare speech Wednesday night. Commodities and a
weak dollar remain in focus.
Stocks gained for a third straight session Tuesday after a volatile
trading period had followed the fresh 2009 highs struck earlier this
month. Deal buzz and commodity gains propelled stocks higher Tuesday.
Overseas stocks are so far mixed on Wednesday.
Wednesday's calendar picks up. It includes the sale of $20 billion
of 10-year notes by the U.S. Treasury, speeches from two Federal
Reserve officials and the Fed's Beige Book report of economic anecdotes
from around the country, due for release at 2 p.m. ET.
Tech investors will listen for any potential news out of Apple's
(
AAPL) iPod release event and Google's (
GOOG) investor presentation on
search and monetization.
Major banking shares are firmer, brokerages are mixed, mortgage
firms are higher and insurance shares are mixed. JP Morgan is out with
a note this morning suggesting that investment banks face new risks to
profitability and added restructuring costs amid a global tightening of
capital standards and other regulatory changes, according to a report
on MarketWatch. As such, the analyst is changing its preference to
traditional lending banks from investment banks. Morgan Stanley (MS) is
boosted to Overweight from Neutral. As part of the same note, the
analyst cut the firm's rating on UBS to Neutral from Overweight.
Health stocks could be on the move ahead of President Obama's healthcare speech in Wednesday primetime.
Drug news is predominant in pre-market trading. Active volume mover
VIVUS (VVUS) jumps after announcing positive results from two final,
phase 3 pivotal 56-week studies, EQUIP (OB-302) and CONQUER (OB-303),
evaluating the safety and efficacy of Qnexa, an investigational drug,
in more than 3,750 patients across 93 sites. The EQUIP and CONQUER
studies met all primary endpoints by demonstrating statistically
significant weight loss with all three doses of Qnexa, as compared to
placebo. Patients taking Qnexa also achieved significant
improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors including blood
pressure, lipid levels, and type 2 diabetes.
McDonald's (
MCD) is lower after it said global August same-store
sales fell 2%. MCD also reported U.S. comparable sales increased 1.7%
for the month.
