By Sruthi Shankar and Twesha Dikshit
June 17 (Reuters) – S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures edged higher on Wednesday, as chip stocks rebounded ahead of the first interest rate decision under new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh.
Wall Street indexes ended mixed on Tuesday following a sharp rally earlier in the week that was driven by optimism around a U.S.-Iran peace deal that sent oil prices tumbling and eased inflation fears.
Policymakers are expected to hold interest rates unchanged at the 3.50%-3.75% range at the Fed meeting on Wednesday, as they wrestle with inflation pressures from higher oil prices fueled by the Middle East war.
The U.S. central bank’s decision is due at 2:00 p.m. ET, and investors will keep a close watch on the new Fed chair’s first press conference for his views on inflation, unemployment and the economic outlook.
“We expect Warsh to sound noncommittal at his first press conference. Partly because it’s his first press conference, and it would be a good idea to not sound too far from the committee’s views,” said Jefferies economist Mohit Kumar.
“If Warsh talks of (dis)inflationary pressures beyond the war, it would be a dovish signal for the market.”
Traders see the Fed holding rates through much of the year, but are betting on a nearly 43% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike in December, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
May retail sales data is also set for release at 8:30 a.m. ET.
At 07:04 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 9 points, or 0.02%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 8.25 points, or 0.11%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 167.5 points, or 0.56%.
U.S. stocks have recovered from much of the early June slump, with the blue-chip Dow touching record highs for the past two consecutive sessions, as a resilient U.S. economy, broadening of the rally beyond tech shares and falling oil prices aided sentiment.
Oil prices hovered near a three‑month low, fueled by hopes that the interim peace deal between the United States and Iran would allow oil to leave the Gulf through the crucial Strait of Hormuz. [O/R]
The memorandum of understanding, not yet public, extends by another 60 days a tenuous ceasefire agreed in April, to allow room for talks toward a permanent truce.
Still, some uncertainty lingered after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Iran memorandum of understanding was not final, and he could resume bombing if he did not like it.
Shares of chipmakers, including Broadcom, Micron Technology, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, rose between 1.5% and 3.5% in premarket trading.
Shares of Elon Musk’s AI and rocket company SpaceX rose almost 3% after surpassing Amazon’s market value on Tuesday to become the fifth most valuable company.
La-Z-Boy climbed 15.7% after the furniture company’s fourth-quarter sales and profit beat analysts’ estimates.
Carmax added 3.6% after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter revenue.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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