US pre-open: Markets to rally in the wake of Fed's decision
US stock futures pointed to an opening rally on Thursday, with markets set to surge ahead on the back of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting of the year.
Oracle Corp.
$114.88
11:09 19/04/24
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to open approximately 184 points higher than Thursday's close, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq expected to open approximately 22 and 51 points higher respectively.
Fed’s officials said they will adopt a slow and steady approach to raising interest rates, prompting stocks to advance late on Wednesday.
“It was widely expected that the Federal Open Market Committee would remove its pledge to keep its target range for the federal funds rate between 0 and 0.25% for a ‘considerable time’ after the end of quantitative easing […] but it instead opted to just soften the language around it, making it less of a commitment and more guidance,” said Alpari UK analyst Craig Erlam.
“The message remained fairly dovish with the Fed stating that it would be patient when it comes to raising rates. The use of a number of caveats also gave it the option to be very flexible with the hikes.”
Meanwhile, the number of people who applied for US unemployment benefits declined by 6,000 to 289,000 in the week ended 13 December, lower than the 295,000 analysts had estimated.
According to figures released by the Labor Department on Thursday, the average of new claims over the past month, dropped by 750 to 298,750, while continuing claims in the week ended 6 December fell by 147,000 to 2.37m.
In corporate news, Rite Aid soared before the bell, after profit topped expectations as the firm boosted its guidance for the year, expecting to post 31 cents to 37 cents a share in earnings, up from its previous guidance of 22 cents to 33 cents a share.
Oracle rose over 5% in pre-market trading after reporting better-than-expected first quarter profit and sales on late on Wednesday, while Accenture advanced ahead of the bell after announcing a 7.3% increase in quarterly revenue.
In other economic news, the rouble rose against the dollar after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the country’s economy will be stabilise within two years, after stressing that “external conditions” were pushing Russia into reforms that would make the economy more efficient.