Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
November 27, 2017
By Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Monday, with a bounce in retail stocks on Cyber Monday and the almost $2 billion-dollar buyout of publisher Time helping early sentiment among investors.
* Shares of Amazon <AMZN.O>, Target <TGT.N>, Wal-Mart and Macy’s <M.N> rose on Cyber Monday, the busiest day of the year for internet shopping, adding to gains for some stocks on Friday.
* Time Inc <TIME.N> jumped more than 10 percent after media company Meredith <MDP.N> said it would buy the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines in a $1.84 billion all-cash deal. [nL1N1NW0JU]
* Shares of intellectual property licensor Marathon Patent <MARA.O> soared another 80 percent ahead of an investor call where it is expected to provide updates on its deal to buy cryptocurrencies miner Global Bit Ventures. [nL3N1NX3MS]
* Bitcoin is a few percent away from hitting $10,000 for the first time, after gaining more than a fifth in value over the past three days.
* Technology stocks led the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record high closes on Black Friday.
* Data is expected to show sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell 6.3 percent to 625,000 units in October. The report is the first among a raft of data ranging from gross domestic product, inflation, manufacturing to automobile sales that could offer more evidence on economic growth.
* Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley and his Minneapolis counterpart Neel Kashkari are expected to make appearances later in the day.
* Among decliners, oil prices slipped, with U.S. crude easing from two-year highs on expectations of increased output. [O/R]
* Western Digital <WDC.O> shares fell after Morgan Stanley downgraded the chipmaker’s stock to “equal-weight”, citing deteriorating prices for some products and uncertainty over a joint venture with Toshiba Memory <6502.T>. [nL3N1NX3I5]
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru)
