S&P futures pause as Wall Street gears up for an earnings-packed week

Stock index futures pointed to little change Monday as earnings season shifts into higher gear.

Load Error

S&P futures (SPX) -0.1%, Nasdaq 100 futures (NDX:IND) -0.1% and Dow futures (INDU) found direction hard to come by.

The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) rose 1 basis point to 3.50% and the 2-year yield (US2Y) was flat at 4.19%.

The earnings calendar is relatively light today, but this week brings results from J&J (JNJ), Microsoft (MSFT), Boeing (BA), IBM (IBM), Tesla (TSLA), Visa (V) and Chevron (CVX).

The FOMC enters its blackout period ahead of its February meeting. 

“We look for the Committee to hike rates by 25 bps on February 1, bringing the target range for the federal funds rate to 4.50%-4.75%,” Wells Fargo economist Jay Bryson and team wrote. “Fed policymakers appear to be entering the fine-tuning phase of this tightening cycle.”

“However, inflation remains too high for the Fed’s liking, and most FOMC members continue to state publicly that rates need to go higher to bring inflation back to the target of 2%. We look for the Committee to raise its target range for the federal funds rate by 25 bps at each of its meetings on February 1, March 22, and May 3. If realized, the target range would end the tightening cycle at 5.00%-5.25% in early May.”

The December measure of leading economic indicators arrives shortly after the start of trading. Economists look for a drop of 0.7%.

Among active stocks, Salesforce (CRM) was higher on a report that activist Elliott Management has taken a large stake.

Now read: A Massive Inflation Shock Could Come Sooner Than You Think

Subscribe to Seeking Alpha here!

Continue Reading