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Stock futures are flat after Wednesday’s sell-off

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On December 23rd, 2021, a trader is working on the New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor in Manhattan.

Reuters| Reuters

Stock futures closed flat Wednesday night after major U.S. stocks fell sharply during the first loss regular trading session.

Futures on Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 25 points (or less than 0.1%) S&P 500 futures were little changed and Nasdaq 100 futures were less than 0.1% lower.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting revealed the central bank discussed reducing its balance sheet in another move to aggressively dial back its pandemic-era easy monetary policy.

As it tapers its bond purchases, the Fed plans to decrease the amount of Treasurys it has and to increase interest rates once the taper is over.

According to the minutes, “Almost all participants believed that balance sheet runoff would probably be appropriate after the first increase of the target range federal funds rates,” they stated.

Following the publication of the minutes, stocks fell. Blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 392.54 point, or 1.07 percent, after breaking an intraday session record. The S&P 500 fell 1.94%. Tech-leavy Nasdaq suffered its largest one-day drop since February with a loss of 3.34%.

Charles Schwab fixed income head Kathy Jones stated, “If there is a surge of liquidity on the upside, and then that liquidity starts going away, it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s going to be a reaction.”

This was the year that we would transition from very easy monetary or fiscal policy to more flexible and expansive fiscal policy. Jones said that this would have an impact on the risk assets, which have increased because of the low discount rate.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors fell in Wednesday’s session.

Investors are eagerly awaiting quarterly earnings reports Walgreens Boots AllianceAnd Bed Bath & BeyondBefore the bell on Thursday

Data-wise, Thursday’s weekly jobless claims report will be published.

—CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.

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