Fed decision eyed
U.S. stock futures were little changed early Wednesday ahead of a decision by the Federal Reserve on the future of its $120 billion monthly bond-buying program.
Market participants will be closely watching what they expect to be the first major step by the Fed to scale back its easy-money policies that have helped stimulate the U.S. economy and financial markets since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Fed concludes its monetary policy meeting today, with a decision expected at 2:00 p.m. ET. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.
As of 6:10 a.m. ET, futures linked to the blue-chip Dow Jones were down 26 points, or 0.07% to 35,912. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 futures rose 17.5 points, or 0.11% to 15,978.75 while S&P 500 futures were little changed.
Avis stock down premarket following Tuesday’s huge rally
Shares of Avis Budget (NASDAQ: CAR) tumbled before the opening bell on Wednesday after the stock skyrocketed $185.71, or 108.31% to close the previous session at $357.17.
The gains followed better-than-expected third quarter financial results and comments from the company’s executives, who said at its earnings conference that they were considering increasing electric-vehicle offerings.
Avis, a once struggling rental car company, is currently one of the most discussed stocks on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum. Retail traders on the forum see Avis as a potential short squeeze candidate.
As of writing, the stock was down $23.17, or 6.49% to $334 share in the pre-market trading session.
Allbirds IPO raises $303 million
Allbirds raised $303 million in its initial public offering after increasing the size of the offering and pricing the shares above their marketed range.
The trendy shoe company sold 20.2 million shares for $15 each, according to a statement Thursday. It had initially planned to offer 19.2 million shares and had marketed them for $12 to $14 apiece.
Based on the amount of stock outstanding after the offering, the IPO price gives San Francisco-based Allbirds a market value of roughly $2.15 billion.
Allbirds shares are due to begin trading on the Nasdaq today, under the ticker BIRD.
