US pre-open: Stocks seen flat as investors eye Fed
Updated : 11:21
US futures pointed to a broadly flat open on Monday as oil prices slid and investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve rate announcement later in the week.
At 1120 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all down just 0.1%.
At the same time, oil prices retreated as investors booked profits after recent gains. West Texas Intermediate was down 1.4% to $43.11 a barrel and Brent crude was 1.2% lower at $44.58.
Saudi Arabia was expected to announce a plan later in the day to diversify its economy away from oil production.
The US central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates on hold when it makes its announcement on Wednesday, but investors will be listening out for any clues on the policy path.
“We could be in for another rocky week in the markets with particular focus back on the central banks as we get the latest monetary policy decisions from the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, the latter of which is expected to announce new stimulus measures,” said Oanda’s Craig Erlam.
He expects two rates hike from the Fed this year. “What the markets are looking for though is an idea of when we can expect them, with the June and December meetings looking the most likely.”
Meanwhile, Societe Generale said: “It feels very much like it did back in October 2015, when the Fed started to hint at the possibility of rate hikes at the December meeting, but with one key difference – the probability of rate hikes priced in the fed funds market then was significantly higher than what is currently priced in the market.
“Back in October, the market was pricing in a probability of three hikes in 2016, and now we are pricing in just one hike by end-2017.”
The Bank of Japan is also due to make a policy announcement on Thursday.
In corporate news, Halliburton, Express Scripts Holding and Xerox are among the companies due to report results on Monday. Technology giant Apple is slated to release its results on Tuesday.
On the data front, US new homes sales are out at 1500 BST.