U.S. Stocks Down as Boeing Shares Drop and Investors Wait for More Catalysts — Barrons.com
December 17, 2019Wall Street gains expected to slow down in 2020
December 20, 2019* FedEx tumbles 7% after cutting profit forecast
* General Mills rises on profit beat
* Trump impeachment vote in focus
* Futures up: Dow 0.05%, S&P 0.05%, Nasdaq 0.07% (For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
By Uday Sampath Kumar
Dec 18 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were set to open flat on Wednesday as Wall Street’s record-setting rally ran out of steam, while FedEx eyed its worst day since September after cutting its annual profit forecast for the second time this year.
The U.S. parcel delivery company fell 7.2% premarket after it lowered its fiscal 2020 profit forecast on heavy expenses, slowing global trade and the fallout from its breakup with Amazon.com Inc.
A Wall Street rally spurred by hopes of an initial U.S.-China trade deal last week propelled the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record closing levels for four straight sessions.
If the benchmark index ends higher on Wednesday, it will be its longest streak of record closes since January 2018.
The index has gained over 27% so far this year, rising in all but two months as investors cheered three interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and progress in trade relations between Washington and Beijing.
“The market hitting new record highs on a daily basis is largely based on some of the good macro news that we’ve had over the past several weeks, indicating that a soft patch seems to have abated,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
But the gains appeared to lose some momentum on Wednesday as investors craved more details about the trade deal announced on Friday.
Another risk factor is an almost certain impeachment of President Donald Trump after a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives planned for later in the day.
“The impeachment process may lean slightly on the market, but the bulls remain fully in charge,” Cardillo said.
At 9:06 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 15 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 e-minis were up 1.5 points, or 0.05% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 5.75 points, or 0.07%.
Trading volumes are expected to decline in the run-up to the Christmas holiday period.
In results-driven moves, General Mills Inc rose 2.1% as strong demand for the Lucky Charms maker’s pet foods helped it beat quarterly profit estimates. (Reporting by Uday Sampath, C Nivedita and Abhishek Manikandan in Bengaluru Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)