We’re looking at a mixed start to trade on Wall Street as investors attempt to second guess the Fed’s stance at this week’s monetary policy meeting.
Failure for Jerome Powell to confirm an end to quantitative tightening has the potential to rattle sentiment in stock markets, in light of the broadly softer than expected economic data we saw coming through at the end of last week. This cautious approach could therefore prevail until the statement is made, and that’s not due until well into Wednesday’s session.
There’s still no further firm news on the trade deal with China, which again has the potential to drag on the health of US equities and the only stand out on today’s economic calendar is the NAHB Housing Market Index. This is forecast to show a modest uptick, although as the March reading it should also be supported by the fact that the previous print would have been caught in the shadow of the US government shut down. Even a small improvement here may be sufficient to convince the Fed that looser credit would be no bad thing.
Ahead of the open we’re calling the Dow down 9 at 25840 and the S&P 500 up 4 at 2826.