US stock futures lower as investors await more earnings, hint of Fed rate cut
Before the opening bell, Minnesota-based retailer Target and home improvement company Lowe's are slated to report quarterly results. Discount giant Walmart is due the next morning. Large retailer earnings can provide a window into how tariffs are affecting companies and consumer spending. Recent retail sales data showed consumers continued to spend last month, but another report signaled waning consumer sentiment and a pick up in inflation worries.
At 6:10 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow fell -0.18%, while broad S&P 500 futures slipped -0.13% and tech-laden Nasdaq futures lost -0.17%.
Aside from retailer earnings, investors are looking for any signs the Fed will lower rates at its next policy meeting in September.
Minutes from the last policy meeting are due in the afternoon, and investors will get a glimpse into how the discussion over keeping rates unchanged went and what could flip some members towards a rate cut next month. Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman voted against the central bank's decision to keep rates steady between 4.25%-4.50% last month. It was the first time since 1993 that two governors dissented.
The main event, though, comes at the end of the week with Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium of global central bankers and finance chiefs. Investors will be looking for hints Powell may be done waiting to see tariff effects before cutting rates again.
Many economists expect Powell to suggest he's open to a rate cut but fall short of signalling one is coming. Nevertheless, the CME FedWatch tool that shows the likelihood that the Fed will change rates at each policy meeting based on market trading suggests an 86.5% chance of the Fed easing rates in September.
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I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts,' she added. Pulte, a vocal Trump ally, has frequently criticized the Fed and its leader, Chair Jerome Powell, for not lowering rates. He also called for closer scrutiny of the central bank's costly refurbishment of its Washington, DC, headquarters. 'She needs to explain herself, but it's all there in black and white,' Pulte said in a phone interview with CNBC on Wednesday. 'I think she needs to resign quickly.' The new focus on Cook is an expansion of the Trump administration's intense pressure campaign against the Fed, specifically central bankers who aren't perceived as allies of the president. Trump is still loudly demanding the Fed lower interest rates, continuing to bash Powell with the moniker 'Too Late.' After raising rates in recent years to fight pandemic inflation that reached 40-year highs in 2022, the central bank started to cut its benchmark lending rate last fall. While inflation earlier this year hovered close to the bank's target rate of 2%, central bankers have paused further rate cuts while they ascertain the economic impact of Trump's tariffs. In the letter, which Pulte posted on social media, he alleged that Cook, a Biden appointee, 'falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.' Pulte refers to a mortgage Cook took out in June 2021 to purchase a property in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which stipulated it would be her primary home address for at least a year, according to the letter. Cook then took out another mortgage in Georgia two weeks later, Pulte said, also declaring that property as her primary home address. Cook's Georgia home was later listed as a rental, according to Pulte. The housing official has functioned as a reliable attack dog for the Trump administration, routinely taking to social media to berate Powell, essentially around the clock. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has criticized Pulte's incessant use of social media for political attacks. But Pulte told CNBC that his call for Cook to resign was apolitical. 'There can be no mortgage fraud. This came across our desk, and it's my duty to report it,' Pulte said. 'It wouldn't matter if she were a Republican or a Democrat. It is what it is.' The Fed declined CNN's request for comment. As Cook faces pressure, the Senate Banking Committee is expected to soon consider Trump's nomination of Stephen Miran, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, to fill the vacancy on the central bank's board left by Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, a Biden appointee. 'We see a window for the Senate to confirm Stephen Miran as a Fed governor, but question if Lisa Cook has an incentive to resign before the meeting. Either way, we see limited impact as the (Fed's rate-setting committee's) membership is broader than just Federal Reserve Board members,' Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at TD Cowen Washington Research Group, wrote in commentary issued Wednesday. 'For Cook, resigning will not end the legal probe. It is why we see no incentive for her to react to Pulte by departing before the next (Fed) meeting,' he said. If Cook were to resign from the Fed's board, that would leave only two governors appointed solely by a Democratic president out of a total of seven seats: Fed Governor Michael Barr and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson. Kugler stepped down from her governor position earlier this month. 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