Wall Street headed toward small gains before the bell today with more corporate earnings rolling in and a much-anticipated speech from the Federal Reserve chair pending, the Associated Press reports. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1%, while futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.2%.
Trading is expected to be relatively muted ahead of the annual conference of central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech on Friday. The hope is he’ll offer clues about how deeply and quickly the Fed will begin cutting interest rates in September after it raised them to a two-decade high to beat inflation.
Paramount Global rose more than 2% in premarket after the company said it was extending its “go shop” period to consider a bid from Edgar Bronfman Jr. The new offer could upend Paramount’s proposed merger with production company Skydance, announced in early July.
Advance Auto Parts tumbled about 12% after it came up short of Wall Street’s profit expectations and gave disappointing guidance.
Urban Outfitters slid 13.1% after the clothing retailer beat analyst forecasts but warned of increasingly cautious consumers pulling back on discretionary spending.
The internet-connected exercise company Peloton climbed 9.5% after it hit sales targets and lost less money in the quarter than analysts were expecting.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 34 cents to $72.27 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 45 cents to $76.50 per barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 146.04 yen from 145.14 yen.
