Everplus Capital’s Jason Rotman explains how December headlines can impact the stock market.
U.S. equity futures are pointing to a lower open ahead of the start of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.
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The three major futures indexes are pointing to a decline of 0.3 percent when Wall Street trading begins on Tuesday.
Forecasters expect little change from the U.S. Federal Reserve when its latest policy meeting ends Wednesday. The U.S. central bank has cut its benchmark lending rate three times this year as what Chairman Jerome Powell called insurance against the economic drags from the tariff battle with Beijing and slower global growth.
Investors are also cautious about a U.S. tariff deadline on Chinese imports.
Washington is due to impose new tariff hikes on $160 billion of Chinese goods on Sunday in a fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus.
Investors expect President Donald Trump to put off or scrap the increase but talks on an interim “Phase 1” agreement announced in October have failed to agree on details.
“All hell could break loose if the tariffs don’t get postponed,” said Stephen Innes of AxiTrader in a report. That would tell investors “they have yet again been taken down the trade talk garden path only to end up at the cliff edge of trade war purgatory.”
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Chinese spokespeople have appealed for a prompt resolution to the fight that threatens to chill global economic growth. Trump rattled markets last week by saying he might be willing to wait until after next year’s presidential election.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1 percent, Tokyo’s Nikkei was off less than 0.1 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.2 percent.
Wall Street closed lower, snapping a three-day winning streak for the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 27909.6 | -105.46 | -0.38% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 3135.96 | -9.95 | -0.32% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 8621.827413 | -34.70 | -0.40% |
In Europe, London’s FTSE fell 1,1 percent, Germany’s DAX dropped 1.2 percent and France’s CAC was off 0.9 percent.
A meeting of the European Central Bank on Thursday also is expected to produce no surprises. Forecasters expect the bank to affirm commitment to its dovish bias amid warnings about European economic weakness and risk to growth.
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British leaders are looking to Thursday’s election for 650 seats in the House of Commons to break an impasse over departure from the EU and London’s future relationship with the trade bloc.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
