Wall Street has managed to scrape together futures on stocks, no doubt digesting earnings reports and waiting for the latest preferred measure of inflation from the US Federal Reserve.
Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts slid 136 points, or 0.4 percent. Futures linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3 percent apiece.
Salesforce shares are low by 0.5 percent following weak guidance on revenue. Snowflake is down nearly 23 percent after reporting the retirement of its CEO and decreased guidance on product revenue. Okta is up 25.2 percent after reporting solid results.
Meanwhile, the release of the US personal consumer expenditures (PCE) reading for January on Thursday (forecast to come in at a monthly increase of 0.3 percent and year-on-year move of 2.4 percent) will likely have investors expecting a blow-out number that would lift stocks and indicate that the recent ‘blow-out’ readings in the consumer price index (CPI) and the producer price index (PPI) are precursors to things to follow.
Wednesday’s overnight trading session would be the last trading day of February. It has been one of those months for the majors during which you wonder how sustainably the rally has progressed, AI-powered or not. And the tech-heavy Nasdaq still leads the majors higher on the month, up 5.20 percent. The spider SPY, which tracks the S&P 500, has added 4.6 percent this month while those ‘real’ Americans draped in Main Street’s Dow stoutly rose by 2.1 percent for the first time since last May, enjoying four straight months of gains.
Investors will be looking at the latest developments in the earnings season, including quarterly reports from Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, and Bath and Body Works, among others. There is nothing new, however, with the publication of personal income data for January, Chicago purchasing managers index data for February, and the pending home sales index for January. John Williams, president and chief executive at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, will moderate an evening forum adding depth to today’s affairs.
Source: Samantha Subin, CNBC February 29, 2024
