Futures inch up ahead of economic data, Fed's rate-cut decision
For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.
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
Actifs liés
Dernières actualités
Avertissement : Les entités de XM Group proposent à notre plateforme de trading en ligne un service d'exécution uniquement, autorisant une personne à consulter et/ou à utiliser le contenu disponible sur ou via le site internet, qui n'a pas pour but de modifier ou d'élargir cette situation. De tels accès et utilisation sont toujours soumis aux : (i) Conditions générales ; (ii) Avertissements sur les risques et (iii) Avertissement complet. Un tel contenu n'est par conséquent fourni que pour information générale. En particulier, sachez que les contenus de notre plateforme de trading en ligne ne sont ni une sollicitation ni une offre de participation à toute transaction sur les marchés financiers. Le trading sur les marchés financiers implique un niveau significatif de risques pour votre capital.
Tout le matériel publié dans notre Centre de trading en ligne est destiné à des fins de formation / d'information uniquement et ne contient pas – et ne doit pas être considéré comme contenant – des conseils et recommandations en matière de finance, de fiscalité des investissements ou de trading, ou un enregistrement de nos prix de trading ou une offre, une sollicitation, une transaction à propos de tout instrument financier ou bien des promotions financières non sollicitées à votre égard.
Tout contenu tiers, de même que le contenu préparé par XM, tels que les opinions, actualités, études, analyses, prix, autres informations ou liens vers des sites tiers contenus sur ce site internet sont fournis "tels quels", comme commentaires généraux sur le marché et ne constituent pas des conseils en investissement. Dans la mesure où tout contenu est considéré comme de la recherche en investissement, vous devez noter et accepter que le contenu n'a pas été conçu ni préparé conformément aux exigences légales visant à promouvoir l'indépendance de la recherche en investissement et, en tant que tel, il serait considéré comme une communication marketing selon les lois et réglementations applicables. Veuillez vous assurer que vous avez lu et compris notre Avis sur la recherche en investissement non indépendante et notre avertissement sur les risques concernant les informations susdites, qui peuvent consultés ici.
