Following a significant rise in the last session, stocks may experience a downturn in the early stages of trading on Tuesday. Current indications suggest a modestly lower market opening, with S&P 500 futures dropping by 0.2 percent.
Investors might be inclined to liquidate after the late rally in Monday's trading, which pushed the Dow and the S&P 500 to unprecedented closing highs. The impending monetary policy announcement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday could also encourage some traders to secure profits.
While interest rates are likely to remain unchanged, the following statement could significantly sway the outlook for future rates. The previous optimism regarding a March rate reduction has receded, with the majority of economists hinting at a possible rate cut in May.
Also influencing Wall Street might be a sharp fall in UPS shares, plunging 6.2 percent in pre-market trading. This is due to a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue report and a disappointing 2024 forecast.
In contrast, General Motors stock is seeing a 7.5 percent surge in pre-market trading following a fourth-quarter report that surpassed expectations and offered a positive profit projection for 2024. Google's parent company, Alphabet, and software giant Microsoft are set to present their quarterly results after today's market close.
The Conference Board is slated to disclose its consumer confidence report for January, shortly after trading opens. An anticipated rise to 112.5 is expected, following a jump to 110.7 in December. The Labor Department is also due to release its December job opening's report, where a slight decrease from 8.79 million in November to 8.75 million is expected.
After a fluctuating start to Monday's session, stocks have shifted mostly upwards. This has resulted in the Dow and S&P 500 reaching new closing highs, and Nasdaq achieving its best closing level in two years.
Mixed results have been seen in Asia-Pacific regional markets on Tuesday. Despite the Nikkei 225 Index in Japan rising marginally by 0.1 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index increasing by 0.3 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index has suffered a significant drop of 2.3 percent.
All major European markets experienced an upturn on Tuesday. The UK's FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.6 percent, the French CAC 40 Index increased by 0.3 percent, and the German DAX Index fell by 0.1 percent.
In commodities trading, following a $1.23 drop to $76.78 a barrel on Monday, crude oil futures now stand at $76 a barrel, a decline of $0.78. Contrarily, gold futures, following an $8.10 increase in the previous session, are rising to $2,052.70 an ounce from $2,205.40 an ounce.
In currency, the USD is trading at 147.44 yen, a slight decrease from the 147.50 yen at the end of New York's Monday trading. The dollar is trading at $1.0842 against the euro, a slight increase from Monday's close of $1.0833.
