Stock futures flat
U.S. stock markets looked set for a muted session on Tuesday, as traders held fire ahead of the start of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting.
The two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will kick off later in the session, when policymakers will decide whether to hike interest rates.
With wages rising and inflation at record highs, economists widely expect the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday.
According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the likelihood of a 50-basis-point rate increase is 98.7%, down from 99.3% on Monday.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, futures for the blue-chip Dow were indicated 6 points, or 0.02% higher to 32,986. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 7 points, or 0.05% to 13,066 while S&P 500 futures were unchanged.
Airbnb, Lyft, Pfizer, Biogen earnings on tap
Traders are also expecting quarterly financial results from several high-profile companies today, with Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) forecast to report a loss of 29 cents per share on revenue of $1.45 billion after the market close.
Ride-hailing giant Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) is likely to post a loss of 7 cents per share on revenue of $846.00 million after closing bell.
Drugmaker Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is projected to announced earnings of $1.50 per share on revenue of $23.95 billion ahead of the opening bell.
Biogen is expected to come out with earnings of $4.38 per share on revenue of $2.49 billion before the market open.
Other earnings to watch today include Lear (NYSE: LEA), Marathon Petroleum (NYSE: MPC), and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD).
Spirit Airlines turns down JetBlue’s $3.6 billion takeover bid
Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) has rejected an offer to be acquired by rival JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), saying it doesn’t believe the proposal will receive regulatory approval.
JetBlue had sought to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Spirit for $33 per share in cash. The carrier sweetened the offer on Monday, pledging a $200 million reverse breakup fee if the deal fails to close for antitrust reasons.
Spirit will proceed with the previously announced merger plans with Frontier Group Holdings (NASDAQ: ULCC), owner of Frontier Airlines.
Spirit and Frontier disclosed their merger plans in early February. Under the terms of the deal, shareholders of Spirit would receive 1.9126 Frontier shares and $2.13 for each Spirit they own.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
As of writing, shares of Spirit were up 22 cents, or 1.03% to $21.62 apiece.
