Investing.com — U.S. stock index futures were little changed in evening trading Sunday as investors maintained a wait-and-see stance ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting and a key inflation reading.
After Wall Street recorded some losses on Friday, futures steadied as a strong increase in nonfarm payrolls prompted markets to reconsider their view that the central bank will cut interest rates by September.
It stabilized at 4,355.75 points before rising slightly to 19,040.0 points by 19:04 ET (23:04 GMT) before stabilizing at 38,867.0 points.
Federal Reserve Interest Rate Decisions, Approach to CPI Data
Attention is now focused on the outcome of Wednesday’s monetary policy meeting, where the central bank is likely to keep interest rates unchanged.
However, given that the economy remains relatively strong, signals as to when it plans to start cutting rates will be closely watched.
Data on Friday showed the labor market, one of the factors the Fed will consider when considering cutting interest rates, remained strong, causing some stocks on Wall Street to fall as expectations of a September rate cut sharply faded.
But inflation data is also due to be released on Wednesday ahead of the Fed meeting and is expected to show that inflation remains well above the central bank’s target range.
Inflation is the Fed’s biggest consideration when changing interest rates, and the central bank has broadly indicated it expects interest rates to remain high for an extended period of time as inflation remains high.
Wall Street remains near record highs
But despite Friday’s declines, Wall Street stock indexes remained near the record highs they hit last week, buoyed by gains in big technology stocks, led mainly by market darling Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:).
The ended down 0.1% to 5,346.99 points, the declined 0.3% to 17,129.90 points, and the declined 0.2% to 38,798.99 points.
Still, rising stock prices have increased the likelihood of profit-taking, especially as risk appetite has declined ahead of the Fed.
Sentiments could also be exacerbated by heightened political uncertainty in Europe after votes across the European Union showed a clear shift towards right-wing and far-right parties.
