Futures on all three major indexes are modestly lower
Futures on all three major benchmarks are pointed below fair value today, seemingly unable to build on yesterday's upbeat session. Oil prices are on the rise once again -- last seen 1.2% higher at $88.54 per barrel -- putting pressure on the market, while Oracle's (ORCL) post-earnings slide weighs on the cloud and broader tech sector. Elsewhere, the NFIB Small Business Index inched 0.6 points lower to 91.3, just below analyst estimates of 91.5.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Now may be the time for short-term hedges, says Senior Market Strategist Matthew Timpane.
- How did Disney and Charter stock fare after the settled cable dispute?
- Plus, more on ORCL's fall; WRK jumps on merger; and GERN upgraded.

5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw over 1.5 million call and more than 1 million put contracts exchanged on Monday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.70 and the 21-day moving average remained at 0.65.
- Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) is down 9.8% premarket, after the company's second-quarter revenue miss and weak revenue guidance. Plus, Monness Crespi downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy." Last session, the stock closed just barely below its June record highs. Coming into today, the equity was up 55% year-to-date.
- WestRock Co (NYSE:WRK) is up 6.7% before the bell, after the company has agreed to Smurfit Kappa's $11 billion takeover bid, creating a $20 billion packaging giant. Should these gains hold, WRK will break into positive territory for 2023.
- Geron Corp (NASDAQ:GERN) is up 13.3% in electronic trading, after an upgrade from Goldman Sachs to "buy" from "neutral," ahead of the the company's 2024 drug launch. Looking to gap above recent pressure at its 320-day moving average, GERN is also looking to jump into the black for the year.
- See what economic data is scheduled for the rest of the week.

Stocks Fall in Asia, Europe
Asian markets settled mostly lower Tuesday, even as stateside tech stocks rallied ahead of an influx of inflation data. South Korea’s Kospi led the laggards with a 0.8% loss, while China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.4%, falling in the final hour of trading amid a rally in the shares of real estate developer, Country Garden Holdings. Japan’s Nikkei sat out of the region’s pullback, gaining 1% to snap a three-day losing streak.
The major bourses in Europe are also mostly lower this afternoon. London’s FTSE 100, however, was last seen up 0.3%, following an in-line reading for unemployment – up 0.5 percentage points in the May to June period – and a steady regular pay growth report. Elsewhere, France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX were last seen 0.5% and 0.7% lower, respectively.