US stocks paused on Tuesday, as investors bided time before the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, with earnings from Amazon ( AMZN ) appearing to test the odds of a further Big Tech-fueled rally.
S&P 500 (^GSPC) and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) futures fell about 0.1% after closing with small gains. Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) futures fluctuated below the flat line.
Stocks are on track to record their worst month of 2024, as a brutal expansion in mid-April means major indexes are poised to end the month with losses. But investors are looking forward to continuing progress in the recovery that prevailed over the past week.
So far, expectations for the Fed's next move have struggled to garner interest with better-than-expected quarterly results, with surprises from the likes of Paramount (PARA) and Tesla (TSLA) playing their part.
Investors are bracing for policymakers to keep interest rates at historically high levels at the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting, scheduled to begin Tuesday. The likelihood of interest rate cuts has declined significantly since the beginning of the year, helping push up Treasury yields — a familiar systemic problem for stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note (^TNX) held near six-month highs at around 4.63% early Tuesday.
Amazon's results after the bell will be closely watched after earnings from Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) raised hopes of a boost to the “Magnificent Seven” this season. So far, Big Tech's results have impressed Wall Street and revealed its impatience with big spending on artificial intelligence.
Highlights on the early earnings chart are Coca-Cola (KO) and McDonald's (MCD), with AMD (AMD) and Starbucks (SBUX) also appearing after the markets close.
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