Futures edge lower, Tesla's China-made EV sales surge - what's moving markets
Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures point lower on Wednesday after a mostly downbeat start to 2024 in the prior session. Markets are now awaiting the publication of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's December policy meeting and, with it, potential clues into the central bank's interest rate path in the coming months. Elsewhere, sales of Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) China-made cars soar in December, but Elon Musk's electric vehicle giant is still grappling with fierce competition in the country.
1. Futures inch lower
U.S. stock futures edged down on Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting.
By 05:09 ET (10:09 GMT), the Dow futures contract had dipped by 56 points or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures had shed 11 points or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had fallen by 76 points or 0.4%.
The benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both lost ground in the first day of trading of 2024, weighed down in part by ebbing hopes that the Fed will roll out interest rate cuts early this year. Meanwhile, the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average gained just under 0.1%.
In individual stocks, shares in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) sunk by around 4% after analysts at Barclays downgraded their rating of the iPhone maker, citing weak hardware demand and concerns over revenue at its services division. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) — who, along with Apple, form part of the so-called Magnificent Seven group of tech firms that helped drive a stellar 2023 for stocks — also declined.
«The impressive rally into year[-]end has faded a bit despite the seasonal tailwinds, but we expect the loss of short[-]term momentum to be modest,»
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