Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 29, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Stock futures dipped Tuesday morning as investors analyzed the latest corporate earnings with the Federal Reserve policy meeting on the horizon. Traders also awaited results from major tech companies.
Futures connected to the S&P 500 were down 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell marginally. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 57 points, or 0.1%.
General Motors shares popped 7% after the automaker posted better-than-expected earnings. Cybersecurity stock F5 rallied 10% on the back of a better-than-expected financial report, while electronics manufacturer Sanmina soared more than 18% after posting strong earnings per share and current-quarter guidance.
Elsewhere, home-appliances maker Whirlpool shed more than 4% after sharing a worse-than-expected outlook for the full year. JetBlue was also down more than 3% even after disclosing better-than-expected results.
“There is not necessarily a very consistent message” this earnings season, said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “It’s not this tide that lifts all boats. … We’ve seen, this far in the earnings season, clear winners and clear losers.”
Those reports come ahead of major tech reports slated for the afternoon, including Microsoft and Alphabet. These companies, which are part of a group known as the “Magnificent 7,” have been closely watched by market participants after driving up the S&P 500 with their outsized gains. Amazon, Meta and Apple will post their quarterly financials later in the week.
Wall Street is coming off a winning session that brought the Dow and S&P 500 to their sixth record closes of the year. Despite those notable finishes, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw the best performance of the three major indexes, climbing more than 1% in the session.
Traders will watch for updates out of the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day policy meeting beginning Tuesday. The fed funds futures market has priced in an approximately 97% probability that the central bank will leave rates unchanged during its Wednesday announcement, according to the CME FedWatch tool.