Stock Market Today: Dow, S&P 500 Set to Open Up Ahead of Fed Rate Decision, CPI Report; Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Alphabet, and More Movers

Jun 12, 2024

Stock futures are rising in premarket trading Wednesday as markets anxiously await the latest CPI report and the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates.

On Tuesday, the S&P hit its 27th record close of this year and the Nasdaq Composite chalked up its 15th high in 2024.

For live coverage and analysis of the CPI data, click here.

To follow all the latest news from the Fed’s meeting and Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference, click here.

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U.S. stock futures were flat early Wednesday after notching yet another record close..

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 31 points, or 0.1%. Contracts tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were slightly up, but by less than 0.1%. On Tuesday the S&P hit its 27th record close of this year, while the Nasdaq chalked up its 15th high in 2024.

The day promises to be busy, with new consumer-price data due in the morning and the latest Federal Reserve interest-rate decision coming in the afternoon. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will unveil the central bank’s latest dot plot, a tool showing where policymakers think interest rates are headed. Traders have dramatically scaled back expectations for cuts and now see one or two by the end of the year.

“Investors will be watching closely where the dots will fall on the interest rate plot, with expectations rising that there may only end up being one cut this year,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. At the same time, “the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have been buoyed by a fresh wave of positive sentiment surrounding artificial intelligence innovations.”

Shares of iPhone maker Apple, one of the biggest companies climbed to a new record Tuesday after it unveiled new AI features earlier in the week.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 4.406% early Wednesday, compared with about 4.3% at the end of last week. The two year yield was also little changed 4.851%.

By

Joseph Hoppe, Dow Jones Newswires

Gold futures rose 0.1% to $2,329.1 a troy ounce, remaining largely rangebound ahead of Wednesday’s key catalysts.

The market’s focus is now on Wednesday’s release of U.S. Consumer Price Index data and the Federal Reserve’s latest interest-rate decision, said Bas Kooijman, CEO and asset manager of investment manager DHF Capital SA.

Gold could rebound if core inflation data is weaker than expected, supporting an earlier interest-rate cut, Kooijman said in a note. Non-interest-bearing bullion typically has an inverse relationship with interest rates, with higher rates damping enthusiasm for gold.

The metal could also find safe haven support from political events in Europe, with French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call snap elections increasing political uncertainty in France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, Kooijman said.

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