U.S. Stock Futures Rise Ahead of Fed Decision
July 31 2019 - 9:22AM
Dow Jones News
By Lauren Almeida
-- S&P 500, Dow futures climb
-- Crude prices tick higher
-- Asian stocks drop, European shares waver
U.S. stock futures rose ahead of a Federal Reserve policy
decision Wednesday, when the central bank is expected to cut
interest rates.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial
Average were up 0.2% and 0.3% respectively.
Shares in Apple Inc. were up 4.1% in off-hours trading, on the
back of strong second-quarter revenue growth reported Tuesday after
the closing bell. General Electric also gained 3.3% off-hours after
it posted a second-quarter loss but raised its forecasts.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. fell 3.9% out-of-hours after it
projected weaker-than-expected revenue growth for its current
quarter on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 was broadly flat, with gains in
construction largely offset by losses in the basic-resources
sector.
Government bond yields fell after figures released by the
European Union's statistics agency showed a slowdown in gross
domestic product during the second quarter.
German 10-year bund yields, which recently touched fresh lows,
fell to minus 0.455, while the yield on their French counterparts
dropped to minus 0.158. Yields and prices move in opposite
directions.
European bank stocks rose on Wednesday amid a set of strong
earnings reports. Credit Suisse climbed 4.2% and BNP Paribas gained
3% after each reported results. Deutsche Bank's stock also gained,
by 3%.
Shares of Next, the British clothing company, notched one of the
biggest rises in the region at 9.2% after it lifted its forecast
for profit and sales. EssilorLuxottica, the French Ray-Ban maker,
saw its stock price gain 4.3% after it agreed to buy control of its
European rival GrandVision.
Glanbia PLC, an Irish food-nutrition firm, fell 14% after it
issued a profit warning for 2019 and posted lower first-half
earnings.
Earlier, Asian stocks were rattled after tweets from President
Trump on Tuesday dampened expectations for a breakthrough in
U.S.-China trade talks.
"There are issues that make a comprehensive and durable deal
quite difficult to achieve," said Arnab Das, global market
strategist at Invesco, adding that he doesn't expect a complete
breakdown or a Brexit-type risk of a no-deal.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 1.3% and the Shanghai
Composite Index fell by 0.7%.
Shares of Chinese property developers fell after the country's
leadership vowed not to use the real-estate market as a tool to try
to arrest an economic slowdown. At a meeting Tuesday, the Communist
Party's top decision-making body reiterated that housing is "used
for living, not for speculation," adding it "will not use real
estate as a short-term means of stimulating the economy."
In the U.S., the yield on 10-year Treasurys edged down to 2.056%
from 2.063% Tuesday. The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the
currency against a basket of peers, was flat.
On the earnings front, Kraft Heinz Co. and Qualcomm Inc. are
among the large companies due to report Wednesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude was up 0.9% at $65.18 a barrel,
amid continued tensions in the Middle East and expectations of
lower interest rates in the U.S. Gold edged up 0.1%.
Shen Hong contributed to this article.
Write to Lauren Almeida at lauren.almeida@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 31, 2019 09:07 ET (13:07 GMT)
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