FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 19, 2021. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
November 2, 2021
By Devik Jain and Shashank Nayar
(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were set for a mixed opening on Tuesday as investors were cautious ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting where policymakers are expected to start scaling back bond purchases.
Major Wall Street lenders including Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co traded mixed, while Tesla Inc fell 4.6% in premarket trading to weigh the most on futures tracking the Nasdaq index.
Tesla’s top boss, Elon Musk, tweeted the electric carmaker had not signed a contract with Hertz. Shares closed at a record high on Monday and has gained nearly 18% since the company’s market value crossed $1 trillion last week.
After Australia’s central bank on Tuesday abandoned an ultra-low target for bond yields, opening the door for an earlier hike in cash rates, the spotlight now turns towards the Fed’s policy meeting starting Tuesday.
The U.S. central bank on Wednesday is expected to approve plans to scale back its pandemic-era support for the world’s largest economy, while focus will also be on commentary about interest rates and how sustained the recent surge in inflation is.
“The Fed has been very good at telling people in advance what they are going to do and we expect no surprises tomorrow, but we also see the market move ahead of the Fed’s plan to price in higher rate hikes if it doesn’t see cooling of inflation,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Jersey.
“The normal rotation that we see from growth to value as interest rates get higher has been very muted so far … the interest remains high for most of the FAANG stocks and really technology as a whole.”
Mega-cap technology names Microsoft Corp and Google-owner Alphabet Inc edged higher after falling in the previous session, while shares of Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook Inc, were set for the fourth straight positive session.
An unprecedented amount of monetary and policy stimulus has helped Wall Street bounce back strongly from a pandemic-driven recession last year. Coupled with that, a largely upbeat third-quarter reporting season has also helped drive U.S stocks to record highs this week.
Of the 280 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings as of Monday, 82.1% have topped analyst expectations. Profits for the third quarter are expected to grow 39.3% year-over-year, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
At 8:26 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 43 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 2.25 points, or 0.05%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 26.5 points, or 0.17%.
Under Armour Inc jumped 10.3% after the athletic apparel maker raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts.
Simon Property Group added 3.9% after the mall operator raised its 2021 forecast for profit and quarterly dividend.
Pfizer Inc gained 2.7% after the drugmaker raised its full-year sales forecast for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine to $36 billion.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
