A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the opening bell on November 26, 2024, in New York City.
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were little changed on Wednesday as traders await the release of the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 11 points, or 0.02%. Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures flickered fell 0.1%, while Nasdaq-100 futures dipped 10.3%.
The personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE) is set for release at 10 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a year-over-year increase of 2.8% for the core reading, which excludes food and energy. Investors will look through the data for indications on how the Fed may proceed on its rate policy at its December meeting.
Indeed, the Fed issued the meetings from its November meeting on Tuesday. While central bank officials said they anticipate more interest rate cuts coming down the pike, they said the pace of cuts would happen “gradually.”
“I think they’ll cut again [in December],” Stephen Stanley, Santander U.S. Capital Markets chief U.S. economist, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” “I think they feel like they’re still pretty far away from neutral, so they feel like they still have some distance to go and they’d like to get another notch in their belt on that.”
Other key data out on Wednesday include personal income and consumer spending for October. That’s also scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. ET.
It’s also a shortened trading week in the U.S., with the market dark for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and then set to close early Friday. Trading volume is anticipated to remain light. Even still, stocks finished in the green across the three major averages on Tuesday. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow reached fresh intraday and closing highs.
