Wall Street futures started the week calmly. After the rise of the last two weeks, investors’ focus this week has turned to the earnings reports of major retailers such as Walmart, Home Depot and Target and the Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium.
On the geopolitical front, attention is also focused on the meeting between Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy. The US President failed to achieve concrete results from his summit with Putin last week.
The Dow index had risen to record levels last week; The expectation is for a continuation of the strong earnings season and interest rate cuts. However, consumer confidence is weakening due to inflation concerns.
In futures trading this morning, the Dow fell 0.10%, the S&P 500 0.15%, and the Nasdaq 0.16%. Markets expect a 25 basis point interest rate cut in September, but the likelihood of further cuts by the end of the year has decreased.
On the corporate front, UnitedHealth rose 2.7%, while Coinbase and MicroStrategy fell around 2%; Bitcoin price declined 2.5%.
On the other hand, Dayforce gained 21% and Soho House gained 13%; acquisition talks for both companies attracted market attention.Investors are now looking to Jerome Powell’s speech, expecting clearer signals regarding the Fed’s economic and monetary policy framework.
