LDN - Business

Futures pause after Wall Street's record run; FedEx sinks

[December 18, 2019] By Uday Sampath Kumar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were flat on Wednesday as investors paused after Wall Street's record-setting spree, while FedEx eyed its worst day since September after cutting its annual profit forecast for the second time this year.

U.S. parcel delivery company <FDX.N> fell 8% in premarket trading after it lowered its fiscal 2020 profit forecast on heavy expenses, slowing global trade and the fallout from its breakup with Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O>.

The bellwether stock was an outlier in an otherwise flat U.S. trading before the opening bell. A Wall Street rally spurred by hopes of an initial U.S.-China trade deal last week had propelled the benchmark S&P 500 to record highs for four straight sessions.

All three major indexes ended at record closing levels.

But the gains appeared to lose some momentum on Wednesday as investors craved more details about the agreement. Another risk factor is an almost certain impeachment of President Donald Trump after a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives planned for later in the day.

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A street sign, Wall Street, is seen outside New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

With little chance of another major update on trade progress between the world's top two economies before the end of the year, analysts say the market will likely stay around present levels.

At 7:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were up only 6 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 e-minis <EScv1> remained unchanged and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQcv1> were up 1.25 points, or 0.01%.

Trading volumes are expected to decline in the run-up to the Christmas holiday period.

In results-driven moves, General Mills Inc <GIS.N> rose 2.8% after the Cheerios maker beat quarterly profit estimates.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru)

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