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Retail sales are estimated to rise 1.1% in January, helped by
the disbursal of another round of pandemic relief checks to
households at the beginning of the month.
Investors are also expecting central banks to keep monetary
policy loose in the short term, and the Fed minutes, which will
be released later in the day, are likely to back those views.
The Fed has pledged to pin interest rates near zero until
inflation rises to 2% and looks set to exceed that goal.
However, market participants have started to factor in a rise in
inflation as economic data improves. Rising inflation
expectations also pushed benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields
to their highest level in a year on Tuesday. [US/]
The Dow notched a record closing high on Tuesday led by gains in
cyclical sectors, although concerns over rising interest rates
kept the benchmark S&P 500 little changed.
With Donald Trump's impeachment trial over, President Joe Biden
wants Congress to pass the legislation in the coming weeks in
order to get $1,400 stimulus checks out to Americans and bolster
unemployment payments.
At 6:32 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 4 points, or 0.01%, S&P
500 e-minis were down 2.25 points, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were down 25 points, or 0.18%.
Shares in Dow components Verizon Communications Inc and Chevron
Corp jumped about 4% each in premarket trading after Warren
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc disclosed major investments in
the companies on Tuesday.
Hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc slipped 2.3% on
reporting a third straight quarterly loss as bookings fell due
to coronavirus-induced travel disruptions.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru;
Editing by Anil D'Silva)
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