morning Briefing - Equity futures stable ahead of latest jobless claims report

The S&P 500 futures trade five points, or 0.1%, above fair value ahead of the latest data on weekly jobless claims, while stocks in China rose for the eighth straight day. 
Weekly initial claims are projected to decline slightly to 1.350 million, according to the Briefing.com consensus, tapering off at still-high levels. That report will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by the Wholesale Inventories report for May (Briefing.com consensus -1.2%) at 10:00 a.m. ET.
There isn't a lot of new macro developments this morning, leaving the market in a consolidation mode that it has experienced since early June. In China, though, the Shanghai Composite has already gained 9.5% this week and appears to have broken out of its recent slumber. The S&P 500 is up 1.3% so far this week. 

Incorporate news, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA 41.01, -1.28, -3.0%) missed earnings estimates, guided its FY20 EPS below consensus, and suspended its share repurchase program. WBA shares are down 3% in pre-market action. 
U.S. Treasuries trade near their flat lines. The 2-yr yield is flat at 0.16%, and the 10-yr yield is flat at 0.65%. The U.S. Dollar Index is little changed at 96.42. WTI crude futures are down 0.3% to $40.79/bbl. 
In U.S. Corporate news:
  • Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA 41.01, -1.28): -3.0% after missing earnings estimates and guiding FY20 EPS below consensus. The company also raised its dividend by 2.2% and suspended its share repurchase program.
  • Microsoft (MSFT 215.48, +2.65): +1.3% after Wedbush raised its price target on MSFT to $260 from $220. 
  • Cisco (CSCO 46.45, +0.64): +1.4% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal-Weight. 

  • Nokia launches data center networking tools, developed with Apple
    July 9 (Reuters) - Finland's Nokia launched a set of tools on Thursday for data center networking, developed in cooperation with Apple Inc, to help companies to manage the growth in traffic as 5G and machine learning technologies roll out.


    As the usage of 5G networks expands, vast quantities of data will be generated as more household appliances and other machines are linked up with sensors and artificial intelligence tools, creating the so-called "internet-of-things".

    Nokia, which competes against China's Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson to build 5G networks, has been broadening its portfolio by adding open interfaces to its 5G equipment and launching new networking products.  

    "We worked very closely with (Apple) over the last two plus years to understand their requirements," said Steve Vogelsang, Nokia's chief technology officer for IP and optical business.

    Nokia's new tools aim to assist firms running big data centres, known as hyperscalers, such as Amazon , Alphabet Inc's Google , Microsoft and Facebook . The products will help them scale up resources swiftly. 
    Apple will deploy Nokia's new system in its data centre in Viborg, Denmark.

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