Stock futures bump higher despite Iowa results delay snafu

As the Iowa caucuses kick off, U.S. investors remain a cool group.

Problems with a mobile app appeared to force a delay in reporting the results of the Iowa caucuses Monday, leaving the campaigns, voters and the media in election limbo and pressing for an explanation.

An Iowa Democratic Party official pointed to “inconsistencies in the reporting” of the results and said “quality control” efforts were holding up the results. The official stressed that delay was not caused by a “hack or an intrusion.”

Stock futures are indicating a rise of about 1 percent, or about 300 points added to the Dow.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
SP500	S&P 500	5303.27	+6.17	+0.12%
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	40003.59	+134.21	+0.34%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	16685.966005	-12.35	-0.07%

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Investors will be watching to see how the candidates fare across the board and whether or not favored candidates in the polls thus far, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden will keep that momentum.

MANUFACTURERS IN IOWA EYE 2020 RACE

Separately, earlier today, President Donald Trump used Iowa to hype his success in sealing multiple trade deals noting "Great times are coming, after waiting for decades, for our Farmers, Ranchers, Manufacturers and ALL..."

In the extended session, Alphabet,  parent of Google, saw shares drop after posting mixed results.

The stock dropped about 4 percent after closing higher on Monday.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
GOOGL	ALPHABET INC.	176.13	+1.95	+1.12%

The search giant posted $46.08 billion in revenue, missing estimates of $46.94 billion, while profits were stronger coming in at $15.35 per share, exceeding the $12.53-per-share forecast among analysts.

Elsewhere, Tesla saw a nice jump on Monday, the biggest percentage increase since May 2013, giving short-sellers, those betting the stock will fall, another dose of pain.

TESLA SHORT-SELLERS TAKE $2.5B HIT

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
TSLA	TESLA INC.	177.46	+2.62	+1.50%

And in commodities news, oil entered a bear market, the fastest slide from the highs in the last seven years, according to the Dow Jones Market Data Group. Canceled flights and trains, falling tourism in China has brought oil demand to a near standstill.

 CORONAVIRUS PUSHES OIL INTO BEAR MARKET

Shares of exchange-traded funds that track U.S. oil and energy stocks tumbled.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
USO	UNITED STATES OIL FUND L.P.	76.97	+0.72	+0.94%
XLE	ENERGY SELECT SECTOR SPDR ETF	94.97	+1.32	+1.41%

Late Monday, the Chinese updated the coronavirus death toll which has hit 425 with over 20,438 infected by the virus.