US stock futures drifted near all-time highs on Tuesday as investors waited for fresh jobs data and Fedspeak to cement or dent growing hopes for interest-rate cuts.
Futures on the S&P 500 (ES=F) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) were down around 0.1%, coming off fresh records for the indexes. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) traded broadly flat.
Investors are bracing for a reading later on JOLTS job openings in October, the first in a wave of key data this week that culminates in Friday’s all-important monthly US payrolls report.
The watch is on for signs of a soft landing for the economy, which will shape views on the path of rates — especially after Federal Reserve officials hinted that they’re still open to a December cut.
Traders are now pricing in about a 73% chance that the Fed lowers rates by a quarter percentage point at its Dec. 18 meeting, compared with 62% a day ago, per the CME FedWatch tool.
Those odds could shift after appearances by Fed policymakers Austan Goolsbee and Adriana Kugler later Tuesday, which set the stage for Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s panel discussion on Wednesday.
On the corporate front, Tesla (TSLA) stock slipped in pre-market trading after shipments of the EV maker’s China-built models fell again, putting sales targets in doubt. In addition, CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay deal was rejected again by a judge.
Meanwhile, shares in US Steel (X) fell over 8% on the heels of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to “block” its $15 billion takeover by Japan’s Nippon Steel (5401.T, NPSCY). Trump said tax incentives and tariffs will enable the American steel giant to thrive on its own.
Political turmoil in France is also attracting market attention, with the government on the brink of collapse as its faces a parliamentary vote. With Germany also set for a snap election after a government breakdown, Wall Street is keeping a close eye on the two pillars of the EU.
LIVE 1 update
-
Intel, day two
Lots of analysis on the CEO shake-up at Intel (INTC) has been released, but indeed this is NOT a one day story.
The path forward for Intel is vitally important for the country — the chip supply chain must be diversified beyond the singular reliance on Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM).
But that path forward for Intel will be brutal, at best.
Here are a couple good points this morning out of EvercoreISI analyst Mark Lipacis:
“We see multiple challenges for INTC, regardless of the CEO: 1) the computing center of gravity is drifting away from x86 in the datacenter to GPUs, and at the edge to ARM, 2) INTC is not only competing with AMD (AMD), but also Nvidia (NVDA) and its own customers making custom CPU and AI processors, 3) INTC has continued to lose share in servers and desktops, although it has stabilized share in notebooks.
Some of my initial insight on Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s departure down below.
