Futures edge up as Wall Street heads into Fed week and Big Tech earnings
US futures point modestly higher Monday as oil retreats, with the Fed's rate decision and Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon earnings all due later this week.
US stock index futures pointed modestly higher ahead of Monday’s open, with S&P 500 futures up roughly 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures up about 0.6%-0.7%, according to Bloomberg and CNBC. The move follows a weak session Friday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.23% to 52,215.16 and the S&P 500 lost 0.52% to close at 7,623.68, with American Express (AXP) shares among the drags and oil prices jumping, according to Bloomberg’s markets wrap and a separate market recap.
Overseas trading was mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped about 0.8% to roughly 62,190, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose about 0.5% to 23,211.81 and mainland China’s Shanghai Composite added around 0.2% to 3,697.52, per Yahoo Finance. Oil pulled back from last week’s highs, with Brent crude down about 1% near $115 a barrel after reports of diplomatic talks involving the US, Iran and Qatar eased some of the supply-risk premium that had pushed Brent to its highest close since April. The 10-year Treasury yield was little changed near 4.99%, CNBC reported, and spot gold traded in the low-$4,000s an ounce, off recent highs.
Monday’s own data calendar is thin — Germany’s Ifo business climate index for October is due, a low-impact release — but the broader week carries two of the market’s biggest catalysts. The Federal Reserve’s policy meeting concludes Wednesday with a 2 p.m. ET rate decision, the first under Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who was confirmed by the Senate earlier this year to succeed Jerome Powell; market pricing points to a low probability of a move, against a backdrop of September CPI that ran at 3.7% year-over-year. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL) report quarterly results after Wednesday’s close, Amazon (AMZN) follows Thursday, and the Commerce Department’s advance estimate of third-quarter GDP alongside the September PCE inflation reading are both scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29.
What to watch today
- The Federal Reserve’s policy meeting concludes Wednesday with a 2 p.m. ET rate decision, the first under Fed Chair Kevin Warsh; markets are pricing low odds of a rate move. (FOMC calendar / financecalendar.com)
- Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL) report fiscal first-quarter results after the close Wednesday, with investors focused on cloud growth and AI spending. (Forbes)
- Amazon (AMZN) reports quarterly results after the close Thursday. (Forbes)
- The Commerce Department issues its advance estimate of third-quarter GDP and the September PCE inflation reading on Thursday, Oct. 29. (BEA release schedule)
- Germany’s Ifo business climate index for October is due this morning, a low-impact release for US markets. (financecalendar.com)