US stocks dipped on Tuesday, as investors estimated the impact of the next economic reports on the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 was almost unchanged, while Nasdaq showed a slight decrease. This is because even if manufacturing activity exceeded forecasts, employment in the sector showed some weakness. Activity rose in May due to stronger growth in orders, but producers were struggling with a lack of supply and labor.
Earlier, energy stocks boosted the S&P 500, as OPEC agreed to increase production in July and gave an upbeat outlook.
In any case, global equities are obviously poised to start June near record highs, thanks to strong improvements in the epidemiological situation and continued stimulus from the government. However, the sharp jump in economic indicators are raising fears of inflation, to which the Federal Reserve will react with an early easing of support programs.
On this, Fed Governor Lael Brainard said: "There are risks on both sides of monetary policy, since the US economy grows rapidly but millions of people are still out of work."
Meanwhile, Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities, said he is trying to ignore most of the current data in favor of focusing on future expectations.
Key events for this week are:
- statements from Fed members (Wednesday);
- US employment report for May (Friday).
S&P 500 was almost unchanged on Tuesday, growing by only 0.05%.
