(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were muted on Wednesday though shares of Ford and Snap saw significant moves following their quarterly results, while investors were on the look out for clues from policymakers on the outlook for interest-rate cuts.
Ford Motor jumped 6.2% in premarket trading after the auto giant said it will return more cash to shareholders via dividend, dimming the gloom of a quarterly loss. Peer General Motors also added 1.8%.
On the flip side, Snap slumped 30.7% on missing Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue, as the Snapchat owner continued to struggle to compete against larger rivals for digital advertising revenue. Peer Pinterest also shed 4%.
Among major corporate results due before the opening bell are Alibaba, CVS Health, Fox Corp and Uber Technologies.
With over half of S&P 500 companies now having reported earnings, 81.2% surpassed expectations, according to LSEG data on Tuesday. Overall, S&P 500 companies’ earnings are expected to have risen 8.1% in the fourth quarter from the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street hit a banal patch this week following a stellar performance in the months before that saw the benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow extend a bull-market run on the back of widely resilient corporate reports and optimism around interest rate cuts this year.
With Chair Jerome Powell ruling out a March rate reduction, traders are awaiting fresh clues from central bankers on the timing of the policy easing cycle, most of whom have refrained from issuing a timeline against the backdrop of a resilient economy.
“Market sentiment has been more ‘glass half full’ as fresh comments from policymakers poured out about the progress made on inflation,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Nevertheless, they have all warned that there is still work to be done, a message likely to be drummed home when other Fed governors speak later today.”
Focus is squarely on remarks from Fed officials including Governor Adriana Kugler, voting member Thomas Barkin and Susan Collins expected through the day.
At 5:48 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 37 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 3.25 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 1 points, or 0.01%.
Among other big movers, New York Community Bancorp lost 8.8% and was set to extend a week-long sell-off after analysts expressed caution about “governance risks” at the bank and as Moody’s downgraded the lender’s long-term debt ratings to junk status.
VF Corp missed expectations for its third-quarter results, and said CFO Matt Puckett will step down later this year, sending the Vans sneaker maker’s shares down 9.5%.
Enphase Energy surged 13.4% after the solar inverter maker said it expects inventory levels to normalize and demand for its products to pick up by the end of the second quarter.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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