Futures steady as Big Tech earnings, Fed verdict draw near
By Ankika Biswas and Johann M Cherian
(Reuters) -U.S. index futures crept higher on Tuesday, as cautious investors awaited the day’s Big Tech results and labor numbers and hoped for clues on the timing of interest-rate cuts in this week’s Federal Reserve policy decision.
Microsoft (O:) slipped 0.10% in premarket trading as investors waited for its quarterly results, due after markets close, before making large bets. The company is widely seen as a front-runner in the AI landscape.
Other megacaps such as Apple (NASDAQ:), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:), Meta (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:) were up between 0.2% and 0.3%, while Nvidia (NASDAQ:) was flat.
At 7:21 a.m. ET, were up 28 points, or 0.07%, were up 10.25 points, or 0.19%, and were up 45.5 points, or 0.24%.
Coupled with Tesla’s disappointing results, Alphabet’s higher expenditure forecast induced a broad-based market rout in the previous week, driven largely by megacap stocks.
The bar is set high for these highly valued technology behemoths, which have spearheaded Wall Street’s record-breaking run since the start of the year. Their quarterly results will be scrutinized for signs that they have the potential to induce further AI-led equity rallies.
A key employment report is also due after markets open. Along with Friday’s Non-farm Payrolls reading, it is expected to help investors size up recent data signaling a loosening U.S. labor market.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey is expected to show 8 million job openings in June, down from 8.14 million in May.
The continued improvement in inflation and an easing jobs market have bolstered expectations of the Fed signaling an interest-rate cut in September when it delivers its policy decision on Wednesday. Odds of a 25-basis-point cut are at 90%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
Any hawkish commentary could sharply weigh on equities, analysts fear.
“While it is not obvious that the economy requires policy easing, the very minimal amount of successful soft landings following a Fed hiking cycle demonstrate the dangers of waiting too long before cutting rates,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
Hopes of an early start to rate cuts have prompted an investor run to mid- and small-cap stocks and away from market domineering tech-related sectors.
The small-caps index is on track for its biggest monthly jump since the start of the year and is poised to sharply outperform the three major U.S. stock indexes. Futures tracking the were up 0.3% on the day.
Benefiting from the recent funds rotation into underperforming sectors, the blue-chip Dow is also set for its best month so far in 2024.
Among others, Merck dropped 1.6% after the drugmaker cut its annual profit forecast, while Procter & Gamble (NYSE:) missed Street expectations for fourth-quarter sales, sending shares of the consumer goods company down 2.9%.
CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:) dropped 4.9% after a report that Delta Air Lines (NYSE:) sought compensation from the cybersecurity firm and Microsoft for the global cyber outage earlier this month.
Cybersecurity and cloud services company F5 jumped 13.5% after forecasting fourth-quarter results above estimates.
Symbotic slumped 20.3% after the robotics vendor forecast current-quarter revenue and adjusted core profit below estimates.
