Futures tread water as markets weigh Trump’s auto tariffs risk; Fed minutes on faucet

(Reuters) – U.S. inventory index futures have been largely flat on Wednesday as buyers evaluated President Donald Trump’s newest tariff threats and awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January assembly, anticipated later within the day.

The U.S. president mentioned on Tuesday that he intends to impose auto tariffs “within the neighborhood of 25%” and comparable duties on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports.

Minutes of the U.S. central financial institution’s January coverage assembly – the place voting members elected to let rates of interest stand and Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned there could be no rush to chop them once more till inflation and jobs information made it applicable – are scheduled to be launched at 2 p.m. ET.

Traders will search for clues on the Fed’s charge path within the minutes, in mild of combined client and producer costs information final week together with a pointy drop in retail gross sales, which had despatched Treasury yields decrease.

“Maintain a watch out for additional discussions on the impression of Trump’s insurance policies and attainable insights into how members have modified their views on the timing of additional charge cuts, if any, in comparison with the December forecasts,” Karl Steiner, head of research at SEB, mentioned in a be aware.

Merchants presently see a minimum of one 25-basis-point charge lower and a greater than 43% probability of a further decreasing by December, in accordance with LSEG information.

Since his inauguration 4 weeks in the past, Trump has imposed a ten% tariff on all imports from China, on prime of present levies. He additionally introduced and delayed for a month 25% tariffs on items from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.

The S&P 500 eked out an all-time closing excessive within the final session, lifting tech heavyweights Microsoft and Nvidia.

At 04:53 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis have been up 36 factors, or 0.08%, S&P 500 E-minis have been up 3.5 factors, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis have been up 17 factors, or 0.08%.

Retail big Walmart’s outcomes, a bellwether for the way the American client is faring, are due later this week.

Earnings from contract analysis agency Charles River Laboratories and chipmaker Analog Units are on the radar earlier than the bell.

Arista Networks dropped 3.8% regardless of the cloud computing supplier forecasting first-quarter income above Wall Road estimates.

Bumble slid 15.7% after the relationship app operator forecast first-quarter income under analysts’ estimates.

Celanese misplaced 13.1% after the specialty chemical substances firm reported a quarterly loss.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Modifying by Pooja Desai)