Stock Market News: Dow Set to Open Flat
Stocks futures were heading higher early Friday after a week of gains for markets, with the focus still firmly on the Federal Reserve’s monetary-policy meeting next week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 62 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures were also rising 0.2%, while those tied to the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.1%. Both the S&P and Nasdaq have risen every day so far this week.
Traders are digesting a week of macroeconomic data that has broadly confirmed the trend of cooling inflation. The producer price index increased by 0.2% in August, in line with the consensus estimate, and up from 0.1% in July, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.
However, traders have rushed to price back in the possibility of a 50 basis-points cut to rates at the Fed’s September meeting next week, following a report in The Wall Street Journal that it could be a close call. Fed-fund futures price in a 43% chance of a half-percentage point reduction and a 57% chance of a quarter-point reduction.
“If pricing stays where it is currently, it would be the first meeting in years where there’s serious uncertainty about the rates decision,” wrote Deutsche Bank analyst Henry Allen in a research note.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note stood at 3.652% early on Friday, ticking down from the previous day.
Among individual stock names, Boeing will be in focus after its biggest labor union voted overwhelmingly to strike, after rejecting a labor deal that offered 25% wage increases over four years.