US open: Equities put on a lacklustre performance ahead of more Fedspeak
Benchmark indices on Wall Street were putting in a lacklustre performance on Friday as market participants refrained from building risk exposure ahead of comments out of various Federal Reserve members during the session.
Apple Inc.
$226.80
13:09 04/10/24
Dow Jones I.A.
42,352.75
04:30 15/10/20
Nasdaq 100
20,035.02
12:15 04/10/24
At 1500 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.18% at 17,993 while the S&P500 rose slightly by 0.13% to 2095. Traders noted that stock markets were pulling back after the previous session's rally thanks to stronger-than-expected jobless claims.
At the same time, worries about rate hikes continue to linger. New York Fed President William Dudley noted last week that the pace of rate hikes will depend a lot on the reaction to the initial lift-off in financial markets.
“The upshot is that, while there is an awful lot of uncertainty surrounding the path of short rates, there is probably less uncertainty surrounding the path of long rates. The Fed will adjust the pace of its rate hikes to ensure that long-term yields rise, but not too rapidly,” said Capital Economics, which expects the 10-year Treasury yield will rise gradually to 2.5% by end-2015 and to 3.0% by end-2016.
On Friday’s session, attention will be on Richmond Fed head Jeffrey Lacker, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee who is giving his view on the economic outlook at an event in Florida.
After that, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, a non-voting member of the FOMC, will speak at the Minnesota Credit Union annual meeting in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Economic data on the table is rather scarce on Friday with only US import price data of note. The import price index fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.3% last month against consensus forecast of a 0.4% decline.
In company news, Shares in Apple fell after the opening bell as the tech giant inaugurated the pre-order period for its Apple Watch, which will hit the stores on 24 April.
The dollar was largely stable against the yen and 0.5% stronger against the euro, while gold futures climbed 1.1%. Oil prices rose with West Texas Intermediate up 1% to $51.28 a barrel.