MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Set For 2nd Day In Red As Oil Extends Bear-market Tumble

Adobe rallies after earnings beat forecasts

U.S. stocks looked set for a second straight day in negative territory, as a recent selloff in oil sapped buying sentiment.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 4 points to 21,433, while those for the S&P 500 index gave up 3.50 points, or 0.1%, to 2,434. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index fell 9.75 points, or 0.2%, to 5,723.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was the biggest decliner in Tuesday's session, down 0.8% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-aim-for-record-open-as-tech-rebound-continues-2017-06-20). Over the past two weeks, the Nasdaq has suffered sharp losses on concerns that high-value tech industry stocks are in a bubble.

The S&P 500 index and Dow average shed 0.7% and 0.3% respectively on Tuesday. That drive lower came after oil prices slid 2.2% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-hovers-at-seven-month-low-as-investors-weigh-up-supply-issues-2017-06-20) to close at the lowest level since September 16. That means the commodity is in bear-market territory, as it has fallen at least 20% from 2017's highest close, logged in February.

Oil blues: Crude oil struggled to recover on Wednesday, trading slightly lower at $43.50 a barrel, while Brent gave up 0.1% to $45.98.

"The key support levels sit down at the November lows at $43 on Brent and $42 on U.S. WTI, which if they give way, $40 could come into view very quickly indeed and drag equity markets down with them, especially if today's weekly inventory data disappoints," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

"What these declines mean for inflationary pressure is not good news for the U.S. Federal Reserve, for whom some U.S. policy makers appear to be turning a tin ear to what is going on in the bond market," he added.

At 10:30 a.m. Eastern, the weekly supply report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due. Investors are waiting to see if stockpiles are reducing. The American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday that oil stockpiles fell last week (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/api-data-show-a-weekly-decline-in-us-crude-supply-sources-say-2017-06-20), but that gasoline supplies continued to rise as American refiners run at record levels.

Energy-related companies traded mixed ahead of the open, with shares of Schlumberger Ltd.(SLB) and Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) down 0.6% and 1%, respectively, while Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) gained 1.6%.

Stocks to watch: Shares of Red Hat Inc.(RHT) jumped 11% in thin premarket trading after the open-source software company late Tuesday posted earnings ahead of forecasts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/red-hat-jumps-to-highest-price-levels-since-dot-com-boom-2017-06-20).

Adobe Systems Inc.(ADBE) climbed 4.7% ahead of the bell. The software company late Tuesday beat Wall Street forecasts with record quarterly revenue (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/adobe-rises-to-record-levels-after-beating-earnings-expectations-2017-06-20).

La-Z-Boy Inc.(LZB) could also move, after rising more than 7% in Tuesday's after-hours trading following better-than-expected earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/la-z-boy-stock-rallies-on-companys-q4-earnings-sales-beat-2017-06-20).

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc.(AMD) picked up 2.1% after the chip maker on Tuesday launched a new generation of chips (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amd-launches-new-epyc-chips-in-direct-challenge-to-intel-2017-06-20) for the servers that drive computing in data centers, seen as a direct challenge to Intel Corp.(INTC). Intel shares lost 1.4% in Wednesday's premarket trade.

After the market closes on Wednesday, software giant Oracle Corp.(ORCL) will report quarterly results (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oracle-earnings-time-for-results-to-match-the-bluster-2017-06-20).

Tech shares overall reacted little to reports that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has stepped down from his post as chief executive officer of the privately held ride-hailing company (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-ousted-after-shareholder-revolt-2017-06-21).

Economic news: On Wednesday, the only top-tier economic update is a report on existing-home sales for May, due at 10 a.m. Eastern.

There are no Federal Reserve speakers lined up to appear today.

Other markets:Stocks in Asia closed mostly lower (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-oil-slump-weighs-on-asian-markets-2017-06-20), but with the Shanghai Composite Index bucking the negative trend and rising 0.5%. The positive close in China came after MSCI Inc. late Tuesday said it would include Chinese stocks in its emerging-markets index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/msci-to-add-222-china-a-shares-in-emerging-markets-index-2017-06-20).

European stocks were mired in red (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-pushed-down-led-by-french-shares-oil-prices-2017-06-21) as energy stocks were hurt by oil's slide and as France's CAC index fell 0.8%. The pound dropped to a two-month in early trade (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pound-hits-2-month-low-as-doubts-over-support-for-uk-government-weigh-2017-06-21), but jumped to $1.2683 after a Bank of England policy maker talked about withdrawal monetary stimulus.

Gold was up 0.3% at $1,247 an ounce, while the ICE Dollar Index fell 0.1%, its first loss in three sessions.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 21, 2017 07:34 ET (11:34 GMT)