Nasdaq Futures Opening Update as on 19 April 2018

U.S. stock futures  lower in pre-market trading for Thursday, April 19.The Nasdaq Futures is trading at 6,842.00  with a loss of  -0.02% percent or -1.50 point.The S&P 500 Futures is trading at  2,709.00 with a loss of -0.03% percent or  -0.75 point. The Dow Futures is trading at 24,728.00  with a loss of -0.08% percent or -21.00 point.

In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is trading at 22,191.18  up  with +0.15% percent or  +32.98 point. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading at 30,598.75 up with +1.04% percent or +314.50 point. China’s Shanghai Composite is trading at 3,113.32 up with +0.71% percent or  +21.92 point. India’s BSE Sensex is trading at 34,414.84 up with +0.24% percent or +83.16  point at 12:15 PM.The FTSE 100 is trading at 7,334.60 up with +0.24% percent or +17.26 point. Germany’s DAX is trading at 12,577.59   with a loss of -0.11% percent or  ?13.24 point. France’s CAC 40 is trading at 5,389.62   up with +0.18% percent or +9.45 point. The Stoxx Europe 600 is trading at 381.70  with a loss of -0.05% percent or -0.19 point.

Thursday’s Factors and Events

Most investors have probably heard of energy giants Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) (NYSE: RDS-B) , Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) , and TransCanada (NYSE: TRP) . Fewer, however, are likely familiar with their publicly traded master limited partnerships (MLPs) : Shell Midstream Partners (NYSE: SHLX) , Dominion Energy Midstream Partners (NYSE: DM) , and TC Pipelines (NYSE: TCP) . That might be a good thing, as the market has beaten up the latter trio this year, sending their valuations south.However, while all three are now much cheaper, that doesn’t necessarily make each one a bargain worth buying.Shell Midstream Partners has lost a quarter of its value this year, which has pushed its yield up to nearly 6%. Much of that sell-off stems from a rule change that impacted the ability of MLPs to collect taxes along with their service rates on some pipelines. However, Shell Midstream made it clear that this policy revision will have no material impact on its earnings since it gets the bulk of its revenue from sources with no exposure to this policy.

Wednesday’s Activity

U.S. market were mixed on Wednesday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 24,748.07  with a loss of -0.16% percent or ?38.56 point. The S&P 500 closed at 2,708.64  up with +0.083% percent or +2.25 point. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 7,295.24 up with  +0.19% percent or  +14.14 point.

Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,604.97  up with +0.32% percent or +5.16 point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 975.10 up with +0.30% percent or +2.91 point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 1,922.80 up with +0.28% percent or +5.44 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,187.26  with a loss of -0.095% percent or  ?1.13 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,606.46  up with +0.12% percent or +1.95 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,502.01 up with +0.11% percent or +1.68 point;