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U.S. equity futures edged lower in early Wednesday trading, while Treasury bond yields bumped higher into the start of the session, as investors looked to extend the longest winning streak for the S&P 500 in two months amid improving corporate earnings and renewed Federal Reserve interest-rate-cut hopes.
Stocks ended modestly higher in yesterday’s session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shrugging off a 9.5% slump in Disney (DIS) to record its fifth consecutive session gain. Treasury yields eased and broader earnings forecasts improved
With around three-quarters of the S&P 500 reporting so far, collective first-quarter profits are set to rise 7.1% from a year earlier to $466 billion, according to LSEG data. That’s an advance of around $4 billion from the start of the earnings season.
Last week’s softer-than-expected April jobs report, which showed 175,000 new hires and a headline unemployment rate of 3.9%, has also soothed concerns about accelerating inflation pressures heading into the summer and revived bets on that the Fed would cut rates in early September.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were last marked 1.5 basis points (0.015 percentage point) higher from yesterday’s close at 4.479% while 2-year notes were pegged at 4.841% heading into the start of the New York trading session.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.09% higher at 105.501 amid reports of fresh intervention into foreign exchange markets by Japan’s Ministry of Finance. The goal is to strengthen the yen.
The yen was last marked at 155.391 against the U.S. dollar.
In other markets, global oil prices were marked firmly in the red following data last night from the American Petroleum Institute that showed a surprise increase in domestic crude stockpiles, suggesting a near-term slump in export demand.
The Energy Department will publish official data later this morning, with WTI crude futures contacts for June delivery marked 65 cents lower at $77.73 per barrel.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 3% for the month, suggest a 7-point opening-bell decline for the benchmark.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, are indicating a 2-point opening-bell gain while those linked to the tech-focused Nasdaq are suggesting a 22-point dip
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In overseas markets, solid earnings and dovish central bank signaling have lifted both Europe’s Stoxx 600 and Britain’s FTSE 100 to records, with the former rising 0.42% in Frankfurt and the latter up 0.53% in London.
Overnight in Asia, the regionwide MSCI ex-Japan benchmark slipped 0.33% into the close of trading, while the Nikkei 225 ended 1.63% lower in Tokyo at 38,202.37 points.
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