
Markets Focus on FOMC Meeting Wednesday
Thomas White
Co-HostU.S. stock futures are slightly higher in premarket trading after the major indices rose last week to kick off December.
The benchmark S&P 500 (SPX) added 0.3% last week, bringing the broad index about 0.7% off its all-time intraday high. Stocks received some support on Friday after the delayed release of September’s core personal consumption expenditures price index came in softer than economists anticipated.
With no economic data due today, investor focus will be on the Fed announcement on Wednesday along with earnings this week from Toll Brothers (TOL), Adobe (ADBE), Oracle (ORCL) and Broadcom (AVGO).
Snapshot (as of 6:30 AM ET)
- Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are down about 1% near $59.50 a barrel as investors monitored ongoing talks to end the war in Ukraine ahead of an expected U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cut this week.
- Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are flat near $4240, driven by growing expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut that pressured the dollar, ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting this week.
- Bitcoin (/BTC) – The Crypto Future is up 3% near 92,200 in premarket trading.
- VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index fell 2.3% on Friday and settled at 15.41 as stocks rose. It was the lowest close for the VIX since September 12th.
- U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is flat just below 99.
Biggest Premarket Movers (Mark % Change as of 6:30 AM ET)
- Albemarle (ALB): +2.86%
- NextEra Energy (NEE): +2.67%
- Micron (MU): +2.64%
- Broadcom (AVGO): +2.37%
- Coinbase (COIN): +2.06%
- Tesla (TSLA): -1.29%
- Moderna (MRNA): -1.16%
- Lennar (LEN): -1.10%
- Occidental Petroleum (OXY): -0.99%
- Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD): -0.61%
Economic Data
- 11:30 AM ET: 3-Month Bill Auction, 6-Month Bill Auction
- 1:00 PM ET: 3-Year Note Auction
Notable Earnings
- Premarket: None
- Postmarket: CMP, TOL
- Premarket Tomorrow: ASO, AZO, CAL, CPB, CNM, DBI, GIII, KFY, LE, OLLI, SAIL
- Postmarket Tomorrow: AVAV, AOUT, BRZE, CASY, CBRL, PLAY, GME
Upgrades/Downgrades
- HSBC upgrades MasterCard (MA) & Visa (V) to Buy from Hold
- Morgan Stanley upgrades General Motors (GM) to Overweight from Equal Weight
- Seaport Research upgrades Oklo (OKLO) to Buy from Neutral
- Morgan Stanley downgrades Tesla (TSLA) to Equal Weight from Overweight
- Rosenblatt downgrades Netflix (NFLX) to Neutral from Buy
- Pivotal Research downgrades Netflix (NFLX) to Hold from Buy
