Futures inch up ahead of economic data, Fed's rate-cut decision
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Futures up: Dow 0.20%, S&P 500 0.31%, Nasdaq 0.51%
Sept 17 (Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures edged higher as investors awaited a batch of economic data and clung to hopes the Federal Reserve would deliver a supersized interest-rate cut at its monetary policy meeting, which starts on Tuesday.
After a choppy start to the week, the S&P 500 .SPX ended its sixth straight session higher and near a record high on Monday, helped by Financials .SPSY and Energy .SPNY stocks.
The Dow .DJI also closed at a record high. However, the Nasdaq .IXIC ended the session lower as investors rotated out of tech stocks .SPLRCT, which have led much of this year's rally.
Microsoft MSFT.O rose nearly 2.0% in premarket trading on the day after the AI-frontrunner's board approved a new $60-billion share buyback program and hiked its quarterly dividend by 10%.
Among growth stocks, Alphabet GOOGL.O and Tesla TSLA.O added 0.63% and 0.57%, respectively, while Nvidia NVDA.O inched up 0.30%. The yield on two-year Treasury bonds US2YT=RR hovered near two-year lows. US/
At 05:35 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 84 points, or 0.20%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 17.75 points, or 0.31% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 99 points, or 0.51%.
In economic data, reports on industrial production and retail sales for August, expected later in the day, could influence investor expectations on the size of the central bank's first interest-rate cut this year.
Fed officials are slated to kickstart a two-day meeting and traders are betting on a 67% probability the world's most influential central bank will decide to lower borrowing costs by a bigger 50 basis points, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
Odds favoring a smaller 25 bps reduction have slipped to 33% from 66% a week earlier, as investors focused on remarks from a former policymaker supporting an outsized move and signs of a cooling labor market, among other indicators.
However, Mohit Kumar, chief Europe economist at Jefferies, said in a note that a "'safer' approach for (Fed Chair Jerome) Powell would be to cut by 25bp", but keep the side door open for a 50 bps cut at later meetings. "Proximity of (U.S.) elections also imply that it would be a more politically neutral stance."
September has historically been weak for U.S. equities, with the benchmark S&P 500 down about 1.20% for the month on an average since 1928. The index has lost about 0.30% so far this September.
Still, a survey of BofA fund managers showed global investor sentiment improved in September 2024 for the first time since June on optimism around a soft landing and rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Among other movers, Intel INTC.O jumped 7.0% after signing up Amazon.com's AMZN.O cloud services unit as a customer to make custom artificial-intelligence chips.
Viasat VSAT.O dropped 5.0% after brokerage J.P.Morgan downgraded it to "neutral" from "overweight".
Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
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