Premarket: S&P 500 Futures Cautious Ahead Of Fed Decision

Summary:

S&P 500 futures stabilize today to the upside as investors focus turn to Fed decision and corporate earnings. Facebook, Qualcomm and PayPal are among the

S&P 500 futures stabilize today to the upside as investors focus turn to Fed decision and corporate earnings. Facebook, Qualcomm and PayPal are among the bellwether companies set to report earnings on Wednesday. The CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and Apple will testify today in the House Antitrust Subcommittee on how these companies are grappling with the antitrust concerns that have been brewing the last years.

Boeing reported a quarterly loss of $4.79/share, worse than the expectations of $2.54 loss. Revenue also came below forecasts. eBay reported second-quarter earnings of $1.08/share, beating the estimates of $1.06.

The main dish of the day is the Fed decision and Jerome Powell press conference. The expectations are for keeping interest rates unchanged and might leave some room for further monetary measures as the coronavirus infections rise in the USA. In the next policy meeting, we might see more asset purchases or yield-curve control if the coronavirus infections continue to increase.

The U.S. Wholesale Inventories dropped to -2% in June from previous -1.2%. The U.S. trade deficit fell by $4.6 billion to $70.6 billion in June. The Exports of goods were $102.6 billion, above than May exports. The Imports of goods for June were $173.2 billion, also above May imports.

European Markets Mixed

European stocks are looking for direction ahead of the Fed decision. The Dax index is 0.19% lower at 12,811. DIW institute forecasts that the German economy will expand by 3% in the third quarter. The CAC 40 index is 0.62% higher at 4,959. The France Consumer Confidence came in at 94 below the expectations of 99 in July. In London, the FTSE 100 is 0.18% higher at 6,140.

Crude Oil Price Rebound

Crude oil trades higher today but remains trapped in the recent narrow trading range. WTI crude oil futures trade 0.73% higher at 41.35, while the Brent crude oil is 0.82% higher at $43.65.

In forex markets, EURUSD consolidates close to 18-month highs amid USD weakness. As of writing the pair is 0.27% higher at 1.1747. GBPUSD is 0.40% higher at 1.2983.

Cryptocurrencies Rally Continue

Bitcoin is 1.61% higher at 11,126; Ripple is the outperformer today adding 4.17% at 0.2403 while Litecoin trades 0.07% lower at 55.77. Ethereum (ETHUSD) is 1.59% higher at 322.59.