Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures Cautiously Higher

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are set to open just slightly higher, as stocks stick close to breakeven ahead of Friday's highly anticipated speech from Fed Chair Janet Yellen, which investors are hoping will provide more concrete clues about the timing of the next interest rate hike. Meanwhile, October-dated crude futures have given back some of yesterday's gains, currently down 1.9% at $47.18 per barrel, ahead of today's weekly inventories data.

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

• Is the Dow pointing to a win for Hillary? Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White crunches the numbers.
• This homebuilder stock has added 79% since its January low.
• The Chinese social media stock that touched a record high.
• Plus... European benchmarks muscle higher, Express earnings disappoint, and Clovis jumps on upbeat drug news.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are about 7 points above fair value.

5 Things You Need to Know Today
 

1. European benchmarks are higher at midday, thanks to a rally in media and financial stocks.
2. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 746,566 call contracts traded on Tuesday, compared to 416,434 put contracts. The resultant single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.56, while the 21-day moving average fell to 0.60 -- the lowest since June 2015.
3. Express, Inc. (NYSE:EXPR) is set to drop 20.9% at the open -- and hit an annual low, putting recent put purchases in the money -- following a disappointing earnings report, and after the retailer downwardly adjusted its full-year forecast. Foot traffic in stores waned as shoppers turned to online and 'fast fashion' options, and CEO David Kornberg said he was "disappointed" with the results.
4. Clovis Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:CLVS) is up 7% in pre-market trading, and set to explore year-to-date highs, as the stock continues to skyrocket after yesterday's announcement that the biotech's ovarian cancer drug, rucaparib, was given priority review status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While the stock has struggled year-over-year, CLVS has more than doubled since hitting an annual low of $11.57 in late June.
5. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) is down 5.1% ahead of the bell, after issuing a disappointing profit forecast for the upcoming quarter. Prior to today, the tax specialist was up nearly 43% since its August 2015 low, but the anticipated drop should put INTU south of its 10-week moving average for the first time since May -- likely to the delight of recent option bears.

Earnings and Economic Data

Markit's flash purchasing managers manufacturing index (PMI) and existing home sales data are due to be released on Wednesday. Guess (GES), HP Inc (HPQ), PVH Corp (PVH), ReneSola (SOL), Tilly's (TLYS), and Workday (WDAY) will hit the earnings confessional. To see what else is coming up on this week's schedule, click here.