Fed meeting in focus
U.S. stock futures were trading slightly lower on Tuesday morning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s two-day monetary policy meeting. The meeting will be highlighted by a press briefing by Chairman Jerome Powell tomorrow.
Wall Street appears to believe the central will decide to hold interest rates steady in a range of 0% to 0.25%. However, some analysts believe it is likely to take more unconventional steps such as capping the level of Treasury yields to continue supporting the coronavirus-stricken economy.
As of 5:55 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were down 67 points, or 0.25% to 26,417. The S&P 500 futures lost 8.87 points, or 0.27% to 3,223.38 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 41.13 points, or 0.39% to 10,634.12.
McDonald’s, Pfizer, 3M, and AMD report earnings today
Today’s earnings calendar includes McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Raytheon (NYSE: RTX), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Xerox Holdings (NYSE: XRX), and Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) before the open.
Notable companies scheduled to report after the closing bell include Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Visa (NYSE: V), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN).
Senate Republicans unveil $1 trillion coronavirus relief plan
In other news, Senate Republicans on Monday unveiled their long-awaited coronavirus relief plan worth nearly $1 trillion.
The proposal would include sending $1,200 payments to most Americans and lower the current federal $600 weekly unemployment supplement to $200 a week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described it as a “tailored and targeted” plan aimed at getting employees back to work and children back to school, and protecting corporations from lawsuits.
However, Democrats have raised objection to the proposal saying that it’s too limited compared to their $3 trillion plan that passed in May, while some Republicans decried it as too expensive.
