{"id":80310,"date":"2025-08-20T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80310\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:15:07","slug":"5-things-to-know-before-the-stock-market-opens-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80310\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Know Before the Stock Market Opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. stock futures are pointing slightly lower as investors parse retail earnings; Target (TGT<\/a>) shares are dropping in premarket trading as the retailer named a new CEO amid slumping sales; Lowe’s (LOW<\/a>) stock is moving higher after the home-improvement company reported better-than-expected profit and raised its full-year revenue outlook; Federal Reserve meeting minutes come today as investors ready for remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell later this week; and La-Z-Boy (LZB<\/a>) shares are plunging after the furniture maker reported weak profit and delivered an underwhelming outlook.\n<\/p>\n

1. US Stock Futures Point Slightly Lower as Investors Process Retail Results <\/p>\n

U.S. stock futures are moving lower as investors digest retail earnings reports and look ahead to Federal Reserve meeting minutes released later today.\u00a0Nasdaq<\/a>\u00a0futures are lower by 0.2% after the tech-focused index\u00a0plunged by 1.5% in the prior session<\/a>, while\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0futures are down 0.1% after also declining Tuesday.\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a>\u00a0futures are ticking lower after the blue-chip index closed fractionally higher after touching an all-time high early in the session.\u00a0Bitcoin\u00a0(BTCUSD<\/a>) is higher, trading at just under $114,000. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is little changed. Oil and gold futures are both moving higher.\n<\/p>\n

2. Target Names New CEO Amid Sales Decline <\/p>\n

Target’s (TGT<\/a>) shares are sinking 10% in premarket trading as the retail giant announced its CEO will be stepping down as\u00a0sales continue to fall<\/a>. Target reported that net sales declined by 0.9% from the prior year to $25.21 billion, slightly ahead of Visible Alpha consensus estimates, while adjusted earnings per share of $2.05 was in line with them. The store announced a change in leadership amid the decline, appointing Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke, a 20-year veteran of the company, to replace\u00a0Brian Cornell as the company’s CEO, effective Feb. 1, 2026, when Cornell will become executive chair.\n<\/p>\n

3. Lowe’s Makes $8.8B Acquisition, Lifts Sales Outlook <\/p>\n

Shares of Lowe’s (LOW<\/a>) are rising more than 3% in premarket trading after the hardware retailer posted better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its yearly sales outlook. Lowe’s reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS)<\/a> of $4.33, above the $4.24 consensus projection of analysts polled by Visible Alpha. Sales of $23.96 billion and comparable sales growth of 1.1% were essentially in line with estimates. The company also nudged its full-year sales outlook higher. The results came a day after Lowe’s rival Home Depot (HD<\/a>) reported increasing momentum<\/a>\u00a0in the home-improvement sector. Additionally Wednesday morning, Lowe’s announced that it would acquire drywall maker Foundation Building Materials for $8.8 billion.\n<\/p>\n

4. FOMC Minutes Set Stage for Powell\u2019s Comments This Week <\/p>\n

Ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated Jackson Hole speech<\/a> Friday, investors will get a look at how central bankers are viewing the economy and inflation when the Fed releases the minutes from its July meeting at 2 p.m. ET today. The minutes will describe the deliberations of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)<\/a> before it voted to keep interest rates unchanged<\/a>, despite pressure from President Donald Trump to lower rates. The minutes will likely provide more information about the two FOMC members who voted for rate cuts at the July meeting.\n<\/p>\n

5. La-Z-Boy Stock Dives on Weak Profit, Soft Revenue Outlook <\/p>\n

Shares of La-Z-Boy (LZB<\/a>) are dropping nearly 25% in premarket trading after the furniture maker reported weaker-than-expected fiscal 2026 first-quarter profit and an underwhelming revenue outlook as furniture sales slow<\/a>. The company reported adjusted EPS of $0.47, below the $0.53 estimate of analysts tracked by Visible Alpha. La-Z-Boy sees current-quarter sales between $510 million and $530 million, with the midpoint below Visible Alpha consensus of $528 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. stock futures are pointing slightly lower as investors parse retail earnings; Target (TGT) shares are dropping in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84,467,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-80310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-business","tag-markets","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}