Sept 30 (Reuters) – US stock index futures were slightly higher on Wednesday as bond yields eased and some megacap and growth stocks ticked up heading into a crucial inflation report that could help shape market expectations about the Federal Reserve’s rate path.
Despite seeing weakness in September, the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on pace for a second straight quarterly gain.
The price-weighted Dow differed, with the index of 30 blue-chip US companies set for a quarterly fall and on pace for its first monthly decline since March.
On Wednesday, most megacap and growth stocks edged higher in premarket trading, with Nvidia, Alphabet and Apple all moving higher.
Chip stocks including AMD and Marvell were slightly lower.
At 05:27 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 95 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 8 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 2.25 points, or 0.01%.
A reading of the August personal consumption expenditures (PCE) – which is closely watched by the Fed – is expected to show annual inflation stood at 3.7%, per economists polled by Reuters.
Money market data showed traders are nearly evenly split between the chance of an October interest rate hike, down from a more than 70% chance of a hike seen a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
“Q3 didn’t just drop hopes of ‘lower for longer’ but doused them in scarce diesel and set fire to them,” Michael Every, global strategist at Rabobank, said in a note.
The final reading of second-quarter GDP and comments from at least four Fed officials including Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari are also due later in the day.
CHOPPY SEPTEMBER COMING TO A CLOSE
September was marred with immense volatility in the bond markets and elevated crude oil prices due to the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran, igniting inflation concerns and hitting risk assets worldwide.
On Wednesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond eased 2.9 basis points after hitting its highest since June 2007 in the previous session.
Warnings from leaders of the biggest AI companies earlier this month about the potential existential risks from the technology had also rattled the AI trade, which has been the dominant factor behind Wall Street’s rise to record highs this year.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms was the standout performer this month thanks to the popularity of its consumer-focused Muse AI agent, with the stock set for a near 30% jump in September. Shares were down 0.3% on Wednesday.
The next test of the AI trade could be memory-chip giant Micron Technology’s earnings due after the bell, with analysts expecting the company to report a more than quadruple increase in quarterly revenue versus a year ago.
Among the early movers, Boeing climbed 2.9% after the Pentagon said the planemaker has been selected to build the US Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter.
Boeing beat out rival Northrop Grumman for the development contract, worth $20 billion. Northrop shares were down 4.2%.
Robinhood Markets gained 2.3% after the online brokerage said it will let users trade some US stocks round-the-clock during weekends.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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