Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Slip as Oil Continues to Rise

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U.S. stock futures were down and oil was up again in premarket trading at the start of a big week for central banks.

The Federal Reserve will meet this week and announce its next interest rate decision on Wednesday. Investors are nearly certain the Fed will hold rates steady this month, but they’ll be carefully parsing chair Jerome Powell’s comments for hints about the likelihood of rate hikes resuming in November. The Bank of England and Bank of Japan will also announce rate decisions this week.

Oil could complicate matters for policymakers around the world. U.S. inflation has steadily slowed in the last year, but some of that progress is being reversed as oil prices surge on OPEC production cuts. Oil rose to over $90 a barrel last week, and continued to climb Monday morning.

Stocks ended last week mixed, with the Dow inching up a fraction of a percentage point for the week while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped.