MW: U.S. stocks: Fed jitters send futures into the red
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Wall Street remained jittery on Tuesday, with stock futures sliding into the red ahead of the Federal Reserve kicking off its two-day policy-setting meeting, which will be closely watched for any clues on the first rate hike.
A slew of earnings reports were also on tap to keep investors busy, including results from Ford, Pfizer and T-Mobile ahead of the bell.
Adding to Monday’s losses, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average YMM5, -0.37% dropped 36 points, or 0.2%, to 17,954, while those for the S&P 500 index ESM5, -0.37% gave up 0.2% to 2,100. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index NQM5, -0.14% lost 4.50 points, or 0.1%, to 4,520.50, with Apple Inc. AAPL, +2.22% shares helping cap losses for the benchmark.
“With the strength in equities of late, investors are looking for any excuse to lock in some profits and Fed meetings tend to provide a prompt,” said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at stockbroker Interactive Investor, in a note. “However, with a low rate and artificially stimulated global environment equities are still looking to continue their trend higher.”
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting kicks off on Tuesday, but the interest-rate statement isn’t released until Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Investors will be looking for clues as to whether a rate hike in June is still in play, although a large majority of Fed watchers don’t think the central bank will provide any hints, preferring to keep all options on the table.
For the discussion on Wednesday, the FOMC will have the first-quarter GDP number to include in their assessment of the economy and interest rates.
Tuesday’s data: Consumer confidence, due at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, is expected to climb to 102.5 in April, after surging to 101.3 in March.
Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct, said in a note the confidence data will be “closely followed” as it “as it could carry some impetus for the timing of a rate hike by the Fed”.
At 9 a.m., the Case-Shiller home price reading is out, forecast to show continued moderate growth just shy of 5% year-over-year, according Daiwa Capital Markets.
Earnings: Reporting ahead of the bell, Ford Motor Co. F, +0.82% is projected to report first-quarter earnings of 26 cents a share, according to a consensus survey by FactSet.
