Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a higher opening on Wednesday as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve?s monetary policy announcement.
Upward momentum may contribute to early strength among stocks, although trading activity is likely to be somewhat subdued ahead of the Fed?s announcement.
The Fed is scheduled to announce its monetary policy decision at 2 pm ET, followed by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell?s press conference at 2:30 pm ET.
While the Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about future rate hikes.
Likely reinforcing expectations for a rate hike, the Labor Department recently released a report showing a bigger than expected increase in producer prices in the month of May.
Stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday, with the major averages bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Despite the choppy trading, the tech-heavy Nasdaq reached a new record closing high.
The major averages eventually ended the session mixed. While the Dow edged down 1.58 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 25,320.73, the Nasdaq climbed 43.87 points or 0.6 percent to 7,703.79 and the S&P 500 rose 4.85 points or 0.2 percent to 2,786.85.
The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to monetary policy announcements by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
Ahead of the Fed meeting, the Labor Department released a report showing another modest increase in consumer prices in the month of May.
The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.2 percent in May, matching the increase seen in April as well as economist estimates.
Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices still increased by 0.2 percent in May after inching up by 0.1 percent in April. The core price growth also matched expectations.
The annual rate of consumer price growth accelerated to 2.8 percent in May from 2.5 percent in April, reaching its highest level since February of 2012.
Core consumer price growth also edged up to a fifteen-year high of 2.2 percent in May from 2.1 percent in the previous month.
Michael Pearce, Senior U.S. Economist at Capital Economics, said the consumer price growth will keep the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates on Wednesday.
“We expect underlying inflation to trend gradually higher from here, which will prompt the Fed to hike rates twice in the second half of the year,” Pearce said.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off the historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Following the meeting, Trump and Kim signed a joint statement pledging to work together to “build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”
The statement said Kim reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while Trump committed to provide security guarantees to North Korea.
The U.S. and North Korea also committed to hold follow-on negotiations led by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a relevant high-level North Korean official.
Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster close by the broader markets.
Utilities stocks saw considerable strength, however, with the Dow Jones Utilities Average climbing by 1.3 percent. The average bounced off its lowest closing level in four months.
Notable strength also emerged among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 1.1 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. With the gain, the index reached its best closing level in over four months.
On the other hand, oil stocks came under pressure on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Oil Index down by 1.3 percent. The weakness in the sector came despite a modest increase by the price of crude oil.
