U.S. stock futures rose on Wednesday after Tuesday’s mixed close. Futures of major benchmark indices advanced.
November's delayed and distorted jobs report, released on Tuesday, failed to provide clarity, widening the divide among Wall Street economists debating whether the rise to 4.6% unemployment signals a controlled cooling or the start of a “hiring recession.”
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.16% and the two-year bond was at 3.50%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing an 80.1% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged.
| Futures | Change (+/-) |
| Dow Jones | 0.23% |
| S&P 500 | 0.33% |
| Nasdaq 100 | 0.37% |
| Russell 2000 | 0.30% |
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were higher in premarket on Wednesday. The SPY was up 0.21% at $680.28, while the QQQ advanced 0.23% to $613.15, according to Benzinga Pro data.
On Tuesday, the Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, and Communication Services sectors posted gains, while the Energy, Health Care, Real Estate, Financials, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Utilities, and Materials sectors all declined.
| Index | Performance (+/-) | Value |
| Nasdaq Composite | 0.23% | 23,111.46 |
| S&P 500 | -0.24% | 6,800.26 |
| Dow Jones | -0.62% | 48,114.26 |
| Russell 2000 | -0.45% | 2,519.30 |
Jeremy Siegel anticipates a supportive shift in the economic landscape driven by a dovish Federal Reserve and a broadening stock market rally.
He views the Fed’s recent signals as the “effective end of quantitative tightening,” creating a liquidity backdrop that has “historically been supportive for risk assets.” Consequently, he expects the Fed funds rate to eventually settle in the “low 3s.”
Economically, Siegel characterizes the current environment as a “no-hire, no-fire” economy; while firms are not aggressively laying off workers, they are also reluctant to hire. His “base case” remains that the economy “avoids recession.”
Regarding equities, Siegel expects a “market rotation” where leadership moves beyond tech giants. He warns that the performance bar for AI mega-caps is now “extraordinarily high” and predicts that “non-Magnificent-7 and non-tech sectors” will begin to benefit from improving margins and lower rates.
Ultimately, he views this normalizing yield curve as a “healthy backdrop for equities.”
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Here's what investors will be keeping an eye on Wednesday;
Crude oil futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 2.52% to hover around $56.52 per barrel.
Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.40% to hover around $4,319.87 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $4,381.6 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.41% higher at the 98.5470 level.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 0.13% higher at $86,549.32 per coin.
Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, as India’s NIFTY 50 and Australia's ASX 200 indices fell, whereas Hong Kong's Hang Seng, China’s CSI 300, South Korea's Kospi, and Japan's Nikkei 225 indices rose. European markets were higher in early trade.
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