Newscasts - US Morning Call: Wall Street futures edge higher ahead of retail sales

Heico

15/08/2024 12:40

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Source: 'Reuters - Business videos'

Description: U.S. stock futures nudged higher Thursday morning ahead of
another batch of economic data. Retail sales data is expected to show a 0.3%
growth in retail sales in July on a monthly basis.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/4dMEA2P

Video Transcript:

The US consumer is in focus with retail sales, the next rate cut hurdle. Hello
and welcome to your US Morning Call. I'm Peter Devlin. There's no let up for
traders tracking a busy week of US economic data. Thursday bringing readings
on retail sales and weekly initial jobless claims. Retail sales are expected
to show a strong underlying trend rising by 0.3% after last month's unchanged
reading, benign consumer inflation figures yesterday reinforced bets for the
Fed to start cutting next month. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said
that he is open to a cut in September. The hawkish leaning policymaker told
the FT that the US Central Bank can't afford to be late to ease monetary
policy. Traders are currently seeing it around 65% chance of a 25-basis-point
cut in September. One analyst spoke to said that the talks of larger cuts are
now done.

The discussion was that they may have to lower rates by 50 basis points. I
think the thinking has shifted a little bit, that they still will lower rates,
but probably only by 25 basis points. So, a smaller decrease than expected.

Wall Street futures edged higher before the numbers. Most mega-cap and growth
stocks were up in premarket trading. NVIDIA was an outlier declining pre
markets. Comments from Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker to at 1:10 PM
Eastern Time will be closely eyed for any further rate cut clues. On to
corporate news now and Cisco benefited from rebounding demands forecasting
upbeat current quarter revenue, but it did announce a 7% cut in its global
headcounts. That sent shares higher over 6% premarket. Deere reported a lower
third quarter profit on sluggish demands. Plummeting farm incomes have
hampered demand for the company's tractors and other equipment. Billionaire
investor William Ackman built a new stake in Nike, the sportswear stock, which
has tumbled 26% since January, soared pre markets. And shares of Heico and
Ulta Beauty jumped in pre-market trading. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
acquired stakes in the two companies, just one of its few purchases. And
SoftBank has dropped plans of producing AI chips with Intel, a piece from the
FT reports. The Japanese tech investor had hopes of competing with AI Darling
NVIDIA. But blamed Intel for being incapable of meeting its demands for volume
and speeds. Oil prices were higher today as optimism. Built of a boost to
economic activity, gains were limited, though over concerns of global demand,
as China's July oil refinery output sinks to the lowest since October 2022.
That's your US Morning Call