MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stock-market Futures In Holding Pattern; Nasdaq On Pace For Weekly Drop

By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

Amazon is set to purchase Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, according to reports

U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a flat open for Wall Street, keeping a key technology gauge on track for a weekly loss.

In merger news, Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN), said that it planned to purchase Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) in a deal valued at $13.7 billion.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 4 points to 21,324, while S&P 500 futures added 0.8 point to 2,432.90. Nasdaq-100 futures lost 1 point to 5,708.25.

Meanwhile, Wall Street could see increased volatility during the session as it is a quadruple-witching day, which means the simultaneous expiration of stock-index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures.

Read:Will quadruple witching spook the market this time? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/will-quadruple-witching-spook-the-market-this-time-2017-06-16)

Wall Street stocks slipped Thursday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-poised-to-slide-as-fed-signals-full-steam-ahead-on-ending-easy-money-2017-06-15), driven by yet another decline for big-cap technology names such as Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), though indexes bounced off lows. The Dow industrials and S&P 500 suffered modest declines, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5%.

Opinion:Equity-allocation indicator flashes bear-market warning (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equity-allocation-indicator-flashes-bear-market-warning-2017-06-16)

Data, Fed speaker on tap: Housing starts fell 5.5% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-builders-cut-back-for-third-straight-month-2017-06-16) to an annual rate of 1.09 million in May, the lowest level in eight months. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast starts at a 1.23 million pace.

At 10 a.m. Eastern Time, the University of Michigan June consumer-sentiment survey will be released.

Dallas Federal Reserve President Rob Kaplan will appear in a moderated question-and-answer session at the Park Cities Rotary Club in Dallas at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.

Investors will likely be parsing those comments for clues about this week's Fed meeting, which resulted in an interest-rate rise, a pledge to start easing the throttle on its stimulus program and indications that another rate increase is in the pipeline.

Need to know:Trust in tech stocks and dozens of other growth names--here's why (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trust-in-tech-stocks-and-dozens-of-other-growth-names-heres-why-2017-06-16)

"Investors had already been digesting the fact that, despite recent weak U.S. data, the U.S. Federal Reserve appeared unconcerned about a slowdown in the U.S. economy," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, in a note.

"These two factors combined, along with further weakness in the U.S. tech sector, played into the risk averse mood among equity investors as they began to mull the possibility of tighter policy, not only from the U.S. Federal Reserve, but also the Bank of England, not to mention the prospect of a discussion on tapering from the European Central Bank before the end of the year," he said.

For the week, the Nasdaq is poised to drop 0.7%, with the S&P 500 flat and the DJIA up 0.4%.

Opinion:The smart money is refusing to buy big tech stocks now (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-smart-money-is-refusing-to-buy-big-tech-stocks-now-2017-06-15)

Stocks to watch: Whole Foods shares are likely to move after Amazon.com Inc. is slated to purchase the grocery-chain giant for $13.7 billion or $42 a share. Whole Foods shares were down 0.9% before being halted on pending news. Amazon shares were up 0.5% before its trading halt.

Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp.(ADMP) soared 53% on new the company's rival to Mylan's EpiPen (MYL) has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/adamis-pharma-stock-skyrockets-after-rival-epipen-product-gets-fda-approval-2017-06-15).

Other markets: Gains for the dollar slowed some, with the ICE U.S. Dollar Index , which tracks the buck against a basket of six rivals, down to 97.365, compared with 97.484 in late North American trade on Thursday.

However, it traded at Yen111.19 against the Japanese yen, from Yen110.93 late Thursday in North America. Yen weakness (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yen-weakens-after-boj-rate-call-dollar-pulls-back-slightly-2017-06-16)came after the Bank of Japan left key rates and its own stimulus policy unchanged on Friday.

Asian stocks had a mixed session while European stocks were trading higher.

Meanwhile, U.S. oil prices rose 0.7%, but were still set for a weekly loss of 2% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-set-to-add-to-streak-of-weekly-losses-2017-06-16). Concerns over a global supply glut has been cutting into oil prices. Investors will get weekly U.S. oil-rig data later from Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 16, 2017 09:13 ET (13:13 GMT)

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