Stock Futures Are Falling
As investors got ready for a week of significant corporate earnings and a potential Federal Reserve interest rate hike, stock futures declined on Monday morning.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 178 points or about 0.52%. The S&P 500 futures fell 0.76%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.1%.
Wall Street had a profitable week as the stock market’s January rally continued. For the week, the Nasdaq Composite gained 4.3%, while the S&P 500 and Dow gained 2.5% and 1.8%, respectively.
The following are the rally tests for this week. McDonald’s and General Motors report on Tuesday as part of a busy week for corporate earnings, and tech giants, Meta Platforms, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet report later in the week.
The Federal Open Market Committee will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday. Moreover, the Fed should raise interest rates by one-quarter points. Investors are watching for signs of how high the central bank will raise interest rates to fight inflation.
This week brings a slew of U.S. technology earnings, which are expected to provide more cues for global tech stocks.
Asian Markets
On Monday, the majority of Asian stock markets declined as investors remained cautious ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting and important economic data. When trading started again after a week’s break, Chinese shares surged sharply.
China’s Shanghai Composite indexes and Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 rose 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively. Meanwhile, markets bet that the country’s economy would be bolstered further by the country’s first Lunar New Year holiday without COVID restrictions in three years. According to state media, domestic travel and consumption had increased sharply in the previous week.
The Chinese government also stated over the weekend that it intends to increase spending and boost domestic consumption.
This week, markets will be looking for data on Chinese business activity to see how much the economy benefited from the rollback of anti-COVID measures.
Broader Asian markets have retreated as attention returns to a Federal Reserve meeting this week.
The day’s worst performers were technology stocks, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling 1.8% due to steep losses in majors such as Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
