BLBG: U.S. Stocks Little Changed Before Federal Reserve Minutes
U.S. stocks were little changed, after the longest winning streak since May 15 for equities, as China’s trade unexpectedly shrank and investors awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June policy meeting.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,652.75 at 9:32 a.m. in New York. The index has rallied 2.4 percent in the past four days as better-than-estimated employment data eased concern over a scaling back of Fed stimulus.
“Investor focus seems to have noticeably shifted from concerns over the tapering of quantitative easing to the positive underlying cause, namely the strength of the U.S. economic recovery,” Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London, wrote in an e-mail. “With the second-quarter reporting season getting into full flow this week and next, hopes are high that corporates can improve on what is a fairly low set of expectations.”
The Fed releases the minutes of its June 18-19 meeting at 2 p.m. in Washington today. The S&P 500 has recovered all its losses following a 4.8 percent drop triggered when Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said after the meeting the central bank may reduce its $85 billion of monthly bond-buying this year and end the program in 2014 as economic risks subside.
Record High
The S&P 500 closed within 1 percent of a record high yesterday after Alcoa Inc. started the U.S. earnings season with results that beat analysts’ estimates. Yum! Brands Inc. reports earnings today, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. are among companies releasing results this week.
In China, a report from the General Administration of Customs in Beijing showed that exports fell 3.1 percent in June from a year earlier. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey had called for a 3.7 percent gain. Imports dropped 0.7 percent last month, compared with the median projection of a 6 percent increase. China’s trade surplus with the U.S. slipped to $17.49 billion in June from $19.35 billion in May.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net
