The Federal Reserve has sent shockwaves through stock markets since Janet Yellen’s FOMC press conference last week so there is understandable caution being exercised with a lower open expected heading into her speech on Friday.
Chair Yellen is delivering a speech on the new normal to a conference at the San Francisco Federal Reserve before the US closing bell. There’s a good chance it’ll be fairly academic with not too much to be added a week on from the FOMC meeting but surprises are always possible.
The final revision for US fourth quarter GDP growth is expected to come in at 2.4%. The 5% growth seen in the third quarter was never going to be sustainable but the worry is that given some of the data seen this year Q1 looks to be even slower. If 2014 is anything to go by, a slow start in Q1 is not too much to worry about but that’s not necessarily a pattern that will keep repeating.
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) shares are expected to jump on the open after the online search and advertising giant announced a $2bn buyback.
GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares are expected to open lower after reporting disappointing fourth quarter earnings.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB)’s online hub of apps received mixed reviews but there is potential seen from voice calls that could be available within two weeks by its subsidiary WhatsApp. In another push to dominate the retail cloud storage market, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will now offer an unlimited cloud storage plan in the states for under $60 per year.
BlackBerry Ltd (TO:BB) reports earnings on Friday.
Futures suggest the:
S&P 500 will open 2 points lower at 2,054 with the
Dow Jones expected to open 7 points lower at 17,671 and the
Nasdaq 100 1 point lower at 4,314.
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