LDN - Business

Futures edge higher as prospect of Sept rate cut grows

[August 22, 2024] (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were marginally higher on Thursday, as sentiment remained upbeat about the Federal Reserve possibly kicking off its policy easing cycle next month, with focus now shifting to policymakers' commentary at Jackson Hole this week.

Hopes that the Fed would cut interest rates next month got a boost after minutes from the U.S. central bank's latest meeting showed on Wednesday a "vast majority" of officials said such an action was likely.

The July policy meeting occurred before the disappointing employment report for that month and a host of economic reports pointing to cooling inflation and a softening but resilient economy.

"The minutes are backward-looking but confirm the soft signals from Fed Chair Powell after the meeting," noted Elisabet Kopelman, U.S. economist at banking group SEB.

"These plans should have received further support from weak data since the July meeting, and we expect Powell to send a clear signal on this in his speech in Jackson Hole tomorrow."

The much-awaited Jackson Hole Economic Symposium kicks off later in the day, with Fed chair Powell slated to deliver remarks on Friday.

Money markets currently see a 69.5% chance of an at least 25-basis-point (bps) cut in September, as per the CME FedWatch Tool and about 100 bps of easing by December, according to LSEG data.

Wall Street's main indexes closed slightly higher in the previous session, with the S&P 500 now sitting less than 1% away from its all-time highs seen in July.

Later in the day, a weekly reading of U.S. jobless claims is due at 8:30 a.m ET, and preliminary estimates of August U.S. business activity are due at 9:45 a.m. ET.

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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 8, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

At 05:10 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 50 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 5 points, or 0.09% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 13.25 points, or 0.06%.

Among individual stocks, data cloud analytics firm Snowflake raised its forecast for full-year product revenue. Still, Snowflake's shares were down 8.5% in premarket trading with analysts attributing the drop to the company not pairing the climb in revenue projections with a rise in margin forecast.

Paramount Global gained 3.3% after a source told Reuters that veteran media executive Edgar Bronfman has sweetened his bid to take over the company, offering $6 billion for its controlling shareholder National Amusements and a minority stake in Paramount.

Shares of Charles Schwab were down nearly 4% after Canada's TD Bank Group said it would sell part of its stake in the brokerage firm.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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