© Reuters.
Investing.com – U.S. stock futures traded lower on Thursday, as a recent technology-inspired rally lost steam with Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell on his view that future rate hikes look likely as the year progresses.
By 06:45 EST (10:45 GMT), the contract was down 90 points, or 0.3%, and was trading 12 points, or 0.3%, lower and down 55 points, or 0.4%.
Wall Street’s major indexes closed lower on Wednesday, with technology companies leading the losses, falling 1.2% and suffering their worst daily performance since early June.
Powell heads to Capitol Hill again
The losses came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his view that the US central bank has not finished tightening monetary policy after last week’s pause in its 15-month credit-tightening campaign, indicating the possibility of two more this year.
Powell returns to Congress later in the session for the day of his testimony on the second day, this time before the Senate Banking Committee.
Investors will be looking to see if he deviates at all from his earlier guidance, especially after opposition from colleague Rafael Bostick, with the Atlanta Fed chief believing the Fed should keep interest rates unchanged for the rest of the year and assess progress. I did.
Investors will also be able to study the latest labor market data, scheduled for last week’s weekly release later in the session. Analysts expect initial claims to be 260,000, even with the previous week.
European central banks continue to rise
While there is still debate about what the Fed will do next, there is less uncertainty in Europe.
Rates, which were raised by 25 basis points earlier in the day, surprised, as expected, with a sharp 50 basis point hike, which is widely expected to raise the benchmark interest rate for the 13th consecutive time later in the session.
He is also expected to tighten monetary policy in the post-election macroeconomic reset.
Connect Amazon to Ocado Offer
In corporate news, Darden Restaurants (NYSE: ) is expected to report earnings during the session, and analysts will likely focus on what executives say about the restaurant chain’s consumer spending trends.
Amazon (NASDAQ:) may be in the spotlight after a report in The Times indicated that the online retail giant could make a bid for British online grocery group Ocado (LON:).
In addition, the US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused Amazon of enrolling millions of consumers into its paid subscription service Amazon Prime without their consent.
Oil Falls US Crude Inventories provide support
Crude oil prices fell, giving up some of the previous session’s gains amid persistent concerns about global demand growth.
By 06:45 ET, it was down 1.8% at $71.25 a barrel, while the contract was down 1.7% at $75.78 a barrel.
Both benchmarks rose $1 a barrel in the previous session after industry-funded data showed that US crude inventories fell by more than 1 million barrels last week, reflecting some strength in demand at the world’s largest consumer.
Official inventory figures are due to be delivered later on Thursday.
However, the market remains cautious as Western central banks continue to tighten monetary policy, hitting economic activity going forward, and as concerns remain about the economic recovery in China, the world’s largest importer of crude.
In addition, it fell 0.4% to $1937.90 an ounce, while it was trading 0.1% higher at 1.1003.
(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)
