Dow Futures Rise on Relief Over Trump's China Tech Plan

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are pointing to a positive open, as investors express relief over a less restrictive plan for Chinese investment in U.S. tech than originally feared. Rather than a sweeping ban, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC today that the Trump administration will rely on the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) to review international investments in "critical technology."

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

• What the Dow 200-day break could mean for stocks, per Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White.
• The catalyst behind a new low for AKAO.
• The XLF chart pattern to keep on your radar, according to Founder and CEO Bernie Schaeffer.
• Plus, Lennar stock gets pummeled with bear notes; Elon Musk teases latest project; and GIS soars alongside quarterly profit beat.

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 987,158 call contracts traded on Tuesday, compared to 514,092 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.52, while the 21-day moving average remained at 0.56.
2. Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) has received no fewer than three price-target cuts, just one day after the stock surged nearly 5% on the strength of a fiscal second-quarter earnings beat. The most notable cut came from Wedbush, to $56 from $62. LEN had been underperforming on the charts ahead of Tuesday's post-earnings pop, and remains down 18% year-to-date. Ahead of the bell, the shares are fractionally higher, and trading just a few points north of Monday's annual low of $48.71.
3. Shares of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) are up 0.8% in electronic trading after CEO Elon Musk teased an electric pickup truck on Twitter yesterday afternoon. Separately, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report has shown that the battery from a Model S involved in a high-speed fatal accident in Florida last month reignited twice after being extinguished by firefighters. TSLA has had a rocky year, but its 320-day moving average appears to have stepped up to contain the stock's latest pullback.
4. Consumer staples stock General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) is up 0.5% in pre-market trading after its fiscal fourth-quarter profit topped estimates. GIS has shed nearly 23% over the past six months, and settled Tuesday just below resistance in the $46.50 neighborhood.
5. Today's calendar will feature durable goods orders, pending home sales, the weekly crude inventories report, the MBA mortgage index, and wholesale trade data. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren will speak later in the day. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Canopy Growth (CGC), Rite Aid (RAD), Paychex (PAYX), and Pier 1 Imports (PIR) are scheduled to unveil quarterly reports.

Losses From Automakers Weigh on Asian Stocks

More selling in mainland China highlighted another down day for major Asian equity benchmarks. The Shanghai Composite fell another 1.1% and hit fresh two-year lows, sinking further into bear-market territory. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng suffered an even worse fate, closing down 1.8%. The selling spread to Japan and South Korea, where the Nikkei and Kospi respectively fell 0.3% and 0.4%, as losses from automakers outweighed gains out of the tech sector.

In Europe, however, stocks are trading higher, overcoming sharp losses at the beginning of today’s session. While bank and auto stocks remain under pressure, a sharp uptick in energy names is helping regional bourses move higher. London’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 are both up 0.7%, pacing just behind the 0.9% rise from Germany’s DAX.