Futures On Stocks Have Barely Changed

Investors tried to hold onto the January rally despite worries about monetary policy and slowing earnings, as evidenced by the little change in stock futures on Friday.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 14 points or less than 0.1%. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 rose 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.

Nordstrom fell more than 4% after reporting disappointing holiday sales and lowering its year-end forecast. Netflix rose 5% after reporting more subscribers than expected, despite missing analysts’ estimates for quarterly earnings.

Wall Street is coming off another losing session, with the Dow and S&P 500 losing three days in a row as corporate earnings and economic data point to a slowing economy.

The Dow fell more than 252 points, or 0.76%, and is now down 0.31% for the year. The S&P 500 dropped 0.76%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.96%, but both indexes are up for the year.

All three indexes should close lower this week. The Dow is down 3.67%, putting it on track to have its worst week since September. The S&P 500 is decreasing more than 2.512% and could have its worst week since December. The Nasdaq has dropped more than 2% and is on track to snap a two-week winning streak.

Investors will continue to monitor corporate earnings in the coming weeks, with SLB and Ally Financial reporting on Friday. They will also pay close attention to Fed officials’ speeches ahead of the central bank’s February meeting, looking for clues on the size of the likely rate hike.

European Market Movements

On Friday morning, European markets were flat as stocks failed to recover from Thursday’s selloff, with the outlook for monetary policy remaining firmly in focus.

Early trade saw little movement in the Stoxx 600 pan-European index. Insurance stocks were up 0.5%, while autos were down 0.5%.

According to Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams, they need more monetary policy to lower inflation to the desired level. Williams gave a speech at a Fixed Income Analysts Society event. He said that it is clear that Fed still has more work to do to bring inflation down to the 2% goal on a sustained basis.

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