Nasdaq, S&P 500 Futures Slide Ahead Of Microsoft, Alphabet Earnings — Analyst Flags 3 Key Things That Could Impact May Fed Decision

Trading in the index futures suggests a negative opening by Wall Street stocks on Tuesday ahead of earnings from tech behemoths Alphabet, Inc. GOOGL GOOG and Microsoft Corp. MSFT. Traders may also focus on a few house market readings and consumer confidence data as well as President Joe Biden's official announcement concerning a 2024 rerun.

Cues From Monday’s Trading:

Stocks trading continued to reflect nervousness, a trend that has persisted since the start of the first-quarter reporting season. The averages flitted in and out of the unchanged line as traders looked ahead to the imminent tech earnings before closing on a mixed note.

Energy stocks advanced, helped by a rise in oil prices, and healthcare, material and utility stocks saw moderate strength. On the other hand, IT, financial and real estate came under selling pressure.

Analyst Color:

Earnings, durable goods orders report and the Treasury yields are among the key catalyst that can lend direction to the market this week, said fund manager Louis Navellier.

He noted that 14 Dow components and 180 S&P 500 companies are due to release their quarterly results this week. If the Treasury yields rise this week, the Fed will be more likely to raise the Fed funds rate at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting scheduled for May 2-3, he said.

Navellier also sees a split vote at the May meeting. “Due to mixed signals coming from different Fed districts, I think a split vote might be forthcoming at the May FOMC meeting,” he said.

Futures Today

In premarket trading on Tuesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY fell 0.42% to $410.88 and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ moved down 0.37% to $314.77, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Upcoming Economic Data:

The Federal House Finance Agency’s house price index for February is due at 9 a.m. EDT. The headline index may have edged down 0.1% month-over-month, reversing some of the 0.2% increase in January.

The S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for February is also due at 9 a.m. EDT. The unadjusted 20-city composite house price index is expected to rise 0.1% month-over-month compared to a 2.5% increase in January. On a seasonally adjusted basis, house prices may have declined 0.4% month-over-month, the same pace of drop as in January.

The Commerce Department will release its new home sales report for March at 10 a.m. EDT. The consensus estimate calls for new home sales of 630,000 in the month compared to 640,000 in February.

The Conference Board is due to release its consumer confidence index for April at 10 a.m. EDT. The headline consumer confidence index is expected at 104, down slightly from 104.2 in March.

The Richmond Fed is scheduled to release its manufacturing and service sector indices for April at 10 a.m. EDT. The indices are expected to improve to 4 and 2, respectively, from -5 and -17 in March.

The Dallas Fed will release the results of its regional service sector surveys for April at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

See also: Best Futures Brokers

Stocks In Focus:

• First Republic Bank FRC shares tumbled over 19.5% in premarket trading, reacting to the company’s quarterly results.
• Swiss investment bank UBS Group AG UBS fell over 1.50% after the bank’s profitability was dented by higher provisioning for losses.
• 3M Co. MMM, Biogen, Inc. BIIB, Dow, Inc. DOW, General Motors Corp. GM, General Electric Co. GE, Halliburton Co. HAL, JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU, McDonald’s Corp. MCD, PepsiCo. PEP, PulteGroup, Inc. PHM, Spotify Technology SA SPOT, Verizon Communications, Inc. VZ and Xerox Holdings Corp. XRX are among the notable companies reporting their results before the market open.
• Boyd Gaming Corp. BYD, Microsoft, Alphabet, Texas Instruments, Inc. TXN and Visa, Inc. V are among the companies reporting after the market close.

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil futures fell 0.75% to $78.17 in early European session on Tuesday, reversing some of the 1.14% gain made Monday.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note dipped 0.053 percentage points to 3.443%.

Asian stocks ended Tuesday’s session mostly lower, although the Malaysian, Indonesian and Indian markets notched up modest to moderate gains. The Australian and New Zealand markets were closed for a public holiday. The lackluster mood reflected apprehension concerning the U.S. earnings season. European markets traded lower in late-morning trading.

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