Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 2, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
March 13, 2018
By Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were set to open higher on Tuesday as a decline in expectations for the pace of interest rate rises outweighed news of Rex Tillerson’s ouster as U.S. Secretary of State.
Trump said he replaced Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo and has tapped Gina Haspel to lead the CIA.
The news comes just a week after the departure of Trump’s economic adviser Gary Cohn in the wake of a surprise turn towards new trade tariffs on steel and aluminum.
“I don’t think Tillerson out and his replacement is a shock to the market that lasts very much at all. The turnover in the Trump administration is so high,” said David Kotok, chairman Of Money Management Firm Cumberland Advisors, Sarasota, Florida.
Futures earlier got a boost from data that showed U.S. consumer prices cooled in February, signaling that the Federal Reserve has few reasons to raise interest rates more than three times in 2018.
At 9:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 82 points, or 0.33 percent, with 16,436 contracts changing hands.
S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 10.25 points, or 0.37 percent, with 187,648 contracts traded.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 27.25 points, or 0.38 percent, on volume of 21,764 contracts.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru Editing by Arun Koyyur)
