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Stock Market Today: Dow Jones, Nasdaq Futures Gain As Investors Await Fed Decision, Jerome Powell's Speech—Starbucks, Seagate, Tesla In Focus

U.S. stock futures rose on Wednesday following Tuesday’s mixed close. Futures of major benchmark indices were higher.

While the monetary policy aspect of Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting is expected to be routine, markets are bracing for a potentially tense press conference from Chair Jerome Powell as subpoenas and presidential pressure overshadow the proceedings.

The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 97.2% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged in January.

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.24%, and the two-year bond was at 3.57%.

Index

Performance (+/-)

Dow Jones

0.04%

S&P 500

0.30%

Nasdaq 100

0.74%

Russell 2000

0.40%

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 0.33% at $697.77, while the QQQ advanced 0.77% to $635.96.

Stocks In Focus

Starbucks

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ:SBUX) was 0.76% lower in premarket on Wednesday as it is projected to post quarterly earnings of 59 cents per share on revenue of $9.73 billion before the opening bell.

SBUX maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms with a poor value ranking, as per Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings.

Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose 0.087% ahead of its earnings scheduled to be released after the closing bell. Analysts expect quarterly earnings of $3.97 per share on revenue of $80.27 billion.

Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that MSFT maintains a weak price trend in the medium ...