US stock futures wavered around the flatline on Wednesday as investors braced for a fresh inflow of quarterly earnings, with the debate over timing of interest rate cuts still rumbling in the background.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell roughly 0.2%. Those on the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) were little changed after the major gauges managed to eke out a win on Tuesday.
Trading was muted as the market took stock of performance this earnings season, with about two-thirds of S&P 500 company reports now in. Results have on average beaten Wall Street expectations, but some areas of weakness have emerged.
In Wednesday’s premarket, Alibaba (BABA) shares retreated from an initial surge after the Chinese online retailer posted a revenue miss but said it will boost share buybacks by $25 billion. Coming up on the earnings docket is Disney (DIS), which said Tuesday its ESPN unit will team up with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Fox (FOXA) to launch a new sports streaming service.
Also ahead are appearances by four Federal Reserve officials, including the Boston Fed’s Susan Collins and Richmond Fed’s Tom Barkin. Investors are listening out for any hints to a policy shift that could revive fading expectations for an early rate cut.
Read more: What the Fed rate decision means for bank accounts, CDs, loans, and credit cards
Meanwhile, growing troubles at New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) have stoked worries about regional banks and the health of the real estate sector. Moody’s has downgraded the lender’s credit rating to junk, and several brokerages have cut their price target amid warnings about governance risk after two key executives left. NYCB shares fell about 2% in premarket, building on a slide of more than 22% on Tuesday.