Futures tread water ahead of Fed minutes; Alphabet slips
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Alphabet down on potential DOJ action
Fed minutes due at 2:00 p.m. ET
Futures: Dow down 0.05%, S&P 500 down 0.04%, Nasdaq down 0.07%
Updated at 6:55 a.m. ET/10:55 GMT
By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Pranav Kashyap
Oct 9 (Reuters) - Stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting for clues on the policy path, while Alphabet dipped after the U.S. said it was considering breaking up Google.
Shares of Alphabet GOOGL.O fell 1.2%in premarket trading after the U.S. Department of Justice said it may ask a judge to force Google to divest parts of its business, including the Chrome internet browser and Android operating system, to curtail its search monopoly.
Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 23 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 2.25 points, or 0.04%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 13.25 points, or 0.07%.
Indexes closed higher on Tuesday after rebounding from Monday's selloff, with technology stocks leading the charge as U.S. Treasury yields eased.
This week's trading has been particularly volatile, with investors adjusting their expectations for rate cuts, seeking new catalysts for a clearer market direction. Key inflation data on Thursday and the upcoming third-quarter corporate earnings season are now in focus.
Minutes from the Fed's September meeting, when policymakers kicked off monetary policyeasing with a 50-basis-point rate cut, are due at 2:00 p.m. ET.
"The tone of the Fed minutes should not change expectations of further rate cuts. The Fed is still scrambling to catch up with inflation slowing in the U.S. and started cutting rates late, but expectations about the pace of easing may be set by the minutes," said Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Commentary from a number of Fed officials including Philip Jefferson, Thomas Barkin, Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly are also expected through the day.
Investors are overwhelmingly pricing in a 25-basis-point cut at the Fed's November meeting, with some now seeing a slight chance the central bank will keep rates on hold, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Prior to the release of strong employment data last week, markets were leaning towards an outsized 50-bps cut in November.
Among single stocks, shares of Arcadium Lithium ALTM.N soared 31.1%after Rio Tinto RIO.AX said it would acquire the miner for $6.7 billion. Rio Tinto's U.S.-listing RIO.N slipped 1.1%.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms dropped for a second day, tracking a slide in domestic stocks as investors continued to question if China would announce new stimulus measures.
Alibaba Group BABA.N fell 2.9%, PDD Holdings PDD.O lost 3.6%and JD.Com JD.O dropped 4.4%.
Additionally, investorswere also keeping a watch onthe impact of Category 5 Hurricane Milton as well as the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
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