Wall Street set for lower open with Fed meet in focus; Walmart slides
Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab raised its fiscal year sales and profit, driven by strong demand from shoppers across all income levels. But its shares fell 2.5% in premarket trading.
The "results were actually pretty good across the board. I just think they're landing in a market that has taken on a risk off tone this week," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
Reports from other retailers such as Target (TGT.N), opens new tab and Home Depot (HD.N), opens new tab earlier this week painted a mixed picture, while technology stocks such as Nvidia, AMD, Palantir and Meta saw a sharp decline.
The selloff signaled investor fears that the equities, which have soared since April lows, are now overvalued, while Washington's growing interference in the sector has also raised alarms.
But according to the Stock Trader's Almanac, the selloff could also be a result of investors paring back their stock exposure during a traditionally rocky period for equities.
"Although dip buyers have stepped in to stabilize the market, it's too early to rule out a further slump in mega-cap tech stocks," said Raffi Boyadjian, lead market analyst at brokerage XM.
In premarket trading, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab and Palantir (PLTR.O), opens new tab were marginally up, while Meta (META.O), opens new tab lost 0.7% and Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab slipped 0.3%.
At 08:43 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 176 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 22.75 points, or 0.36% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 85.75 points, or 0.37%.
Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab gained 1.7% after a report suggested that the plane maker was in talks to sell as many as 500 jets to China, while Coty (COTY.N), opens new tab slumped 19% after the beauty products maker forecast a drop in current-quarter sales on weak U.S. spending.
The spotlight this week is on the Fed's annual symposium, where Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on Friday at 10 a.m. ET. Traders are looking for any commentary from Powell that would signal an interest rate cut in September following recent job market weakness.
A weekly report on Thursday showed that the number of jobless claims rose by the most in about three months last week.
The minutes from the central bank's July meeting indicate that policymakers had struck a cautious tone and plan to stick with it until they can fully gauge the impact of trade uncertainty on the economy.
The caution had traders paring odds of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut in September to 79% from 99.9% last week, according to data compiled by LSEG.
In trade developments, the U.S. and the European Union on Thursday finalized a framework deal they had reached last month.
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