US pre-open: Stock futures mixed as oil prices rise, China data disappoints

US stock futures were mixed on Monday as oil prices jumped but Chinese data came in worse than expected.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 18 points to 17,513, S&P 500 futures increased 2.65 points to 2,046.25 and Nasdaq futures dropped 4.25 points to 4,327.75.

Oil prices advanced after Goldman Sachs said the market had finished almost two years of oversupply and moved to a deficit following global production disruptions. Supply disruptions around the world, including in Nigeria, has reached as much as 3.75 million barrels per day, soothing the supply glut that has been blamed for pushing prices down as much as 70% between 2014 and early 2016.

"The oil market has gone from nearing storage saturation to being in deficit much earlier than we expected and we are pulling forward our price forecast, with second quarter/second half of 2016 WTI now $45/bbl and $50/bbl,” Goldman said.

"We believe the industry still has further to adjust and our updated forecast maintains the same 2016-2017 price level we previously believed was required to finally correct both the barrel and capital imbalances, and eventually take prices to $60/bbl."

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.05% to $47.18 per barrel and Brent increased 2.02% to $48.82 per barrel at 1228 BST.

Offsetting the gains in oil, Chinese data over the weekend disappointed.

China’s industrial output rose 6% year-on-year in April, compared with 6.8% growth a month earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday. Analysts had predicted a 6.6% increase.

Retails sales in China grew 10.1% in April compared to a year ago, following a 10.5% year-on-year rise in March, missing forecasts for a 10.6% gain.

Fixed-asset investment in urban areas climbed 10.5% year-over-year in the January-to-April period, compared with an annual increase of 10.7% for the first three months of 2016. It compared to estimates for a 11.0% rise.

“The drop in retail sales is particularly worrying given that they had been on an upward track since May last year and in the last couple of months the trend has reversed sharply from over 11% at the end of the last quarter of 2015,” said Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets.

“While there was a bit of a pick-up in March this now looks like it was simply a Chinese New Year inspired spike.”

On Monday’s economic calendar, the Empire Manufacturing index will be released at 1330 BST and housing market data from the National Association of Home Builders is due at 1500 BST.

On the corporate front, Amazon advanced on reports that it is expected roll out new lines of private-label brands in the coming weeks.

Yahoo rose in pre-market trade amid reports that Warren Buffet is backing a consortium that is bidding for core internet assets of the company.

Pfizer may move following news it will buy Anacor Pharmaceuticals in a deal valued at $5.2bn.