NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street was poised for gains when markets open on Tuesday as investors continue to pore over corporate earnings reports while anxiously waiting to see how much the Federal Reserve will raise its main borrowing rate when it meets next week.
Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.6% and futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.8%.
Corporate profits are under threat given high inflation and slowdowns in parts of the economy, though analysts are still forecasting continued growth and markets are likely to remain volatile through earnings season.
“The news paints a deteriorating picture for the outlook of major companies amid global growth fears,” Anderson Alves, a trader at ActivTrades, said in a commentary. “Traders will be paying close attention to the ongoing earnings season for further signs of how companies are faring in a weakening economy.”
Johnson & Johnson said that growing sales of the cancer treatment Darzalex helped lift the health care giant to a better-than-expected second quarter, but foreign exchange rates again cut into its 2022 forecast. After trimming its forecast in April citing exchange rates — a rapidly strengthening dollar — the company did so again Tuesday to a range that is below analyst expectations. J&J shares rose 1% in premarket trading.
American Airlines and Tesla are among the dozens of S&P 500 companies scheduled to issue quarterly snapshots this week.
Global shares were mixed on Tuesday, while oil prices retreated after Monday’s 5.1% jump.
At midday in Europe, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.2% in early trading, while Germany’s DAX inched up 0.1% after early losses. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3%, also recovering from small early losses.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 reversed early losses, adding 0.7% to finish at 26,961.68. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.6% to 6,649.60. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.2% to 2,370.97. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9% to 20,661.06, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed at 3,279.43.
Analysts said the Tokyo market was seeing some buying after a three-day weekend. Monday was a national holiday in Japan.
On Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.8% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.7%. The Nasdaq gave up 0.8% and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 0.3%.
The U.S. market has been lurching mostly lower for weeks on worries that the Federal Reserve and other central banks will slam the brake too hard on the economy in hopes of bringing down high inflation. If they’re too aggressive with their interest-rate hikes, they could cause a recession.
A key report released last week indicated expectations are easing for inflation among households. That could prevent a more vicious cycle from taking root and ease the pressure on the Federal Reserve.
Expectations have fallen for how aggressively the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its meeting next week. Traders are now betting on a roughly one-in-three chance for a monster hike of a full percentage point, with the majority favoring a 0.75 percentage point increase. As recently as Thursday, the heavy bet was on a hike of a full point.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates for the first time in 11 years. Many investors expect an increase of 0.25 percentage points, “but more is not unthinkable,” economists wrote in a BofA Global Research report.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.88 to $100.72 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost $1.62 to $104.65 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged down to 137.56 Japanese yen from 138.13 yen. The euro cost $1.0250, up from $1.0146.
