Futures Lower Thursday; Fed Officials Signal Tighter Policy

First Look

Futures pointed lower Thursday ahead of new housing and unemployment claims data releasing this morning. Housing starts are expected to decrease from 1.439 million to 1.42 million in October while building permits are projected to drop from 1.564 million in September to 1.518 million. Initial unemployment claims are estimated to drop slightly from 225,000 to 222,000 new claims. Meanwhile, Fed officials indicated yesterday that policy would tighten further following a strong retail sales report. Lastly, Cisco (CSCO) shares are up 4.28% this morning following the firm's earnings and revenue beat coupled with a bullish revenue outlook. The Dow Jones is down -0.74%, the S&P is down -0.85%, the Nasdaq is down -0.89%.

Today's Sentiment

Quote of the Day

Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.
Soichiro Honda

Stocks on the Move

International Markets

Stocks in Asia are mixed. The Australia ASX All Ordinaries is up 0.16%, the Shanghai SE Composite Index is down -0.15%, the Nikkei 225 is down -0.35% the Mumbai Sensex is down -0.37% and the Hang Seng is down -1.15%. Stocks in Europe are down. The CAC 40 is down -0.9%, the Euro Stoxx 50 is down -0.68%, the FTSE 100 is down -0.63% and the DAX is down -0.31%.

Futures & Currencies

Energy futures are mixed today. The price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil is down -1.71 at 83.88 per barrel. Brent crude is down -1.43 at 91.43 per barrel. Natural Gas is up 0.11 at 6.31. Precious metals are down this morning. Gold is down -15.76 at 1758.11 per ounce. Platinum is down -19.84 at 989.4 while silver is down -0.49 at 21.24. The dollar is up compared to the major currencies today. The greenback is up against the euro, up against the Yen and up against the Pound. Bitcoin is down -0.08% to $16,561.46 while Ethereum is down -1.38% to $1,200.81.

Put/Call Ratio

Yesterday, 1,587,706 call contracts traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) compared to 2,155,843 put contracts. The single-session put/call ratio was 1.36.

Today's Economic Calendar

Earnings Expected Today