Stock Market News Today: S&P 500 Down Slightly Pre-Market

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As of 7:20 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures are indicating a slightly negative open. Futures are down .05% for the S&P 500 while the Nasdaq-100 futures are down .09%. Let's look at some of the biggest news that will shape the markets today.

Pre-Market Futures

• S&P 500 : -3.75 (-.06%)
• Nasdaq : -21.50 (-.11%)
• Dow Jones : -36.00 (-.08%)

Oil Pries Continue Dropping

One of the biggest stories in yesterday's market was the prices of crude oil dropping. That trend is continuing today with crude oil prices down another .63% to $73.10. The biggest decliners in yesterday's trading included energy stocks like Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: MPC) and Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO).

Home Mortgage Demand Drops

Mortgage rates seeing unexpected increases caused demand for mortgage applications to drop. Average 30-year mortgage rates jumped from 6.14% to 6.36% last week. This led to 5.1% fewer mortgage applications. With mortgage rates continuing to climb into Monday of this week, that could put continuing headwinds on the growth in residential real estate demand.

All Eyes On Google

Google parent company Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL) will be one of the most watched stocks today. In a filing released late on Tuesday , the Department of Justice revealed one of the remedies they're considering pursuing in their case with Google is a breakup of the company. A judge ruled last August that Google has monopoly powers in search, and it's been widely viewed that the DOJ would target agreements like the company's 'default search engine' status on iPhones and other mobile devices.

However, the release of Thursday's document reveals that more punitive measures may be on the table. In pre-market trading, Google shares are down about .94%.

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