Wall Street was poised to open with gains today, according to the Associated Press, despite a gloomy global economic forecast. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% before the bell, while futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.5%.
A report forecasting that the global economy will slow next year didn’t seem to bother markets, which have flourished in November despite ongoing inflation, elevated interest rates, and geopolitical calamities.
Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated today that international growth would slow to 2.7% in 2024 from an expected 2.9% pace this year. That would amount to the slowest calendar-year growth since the pandemic year of 2020. A key factor in the global slowdown is the expected deceleration of the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China.
In corporate news, General Motors jumped 9.2% in premarket trading after the Detroit automaker said it is raising its dividend, despite its pretax earnings taking a $1.1 billion hit this year due to production lost during a six-week strike by autoworkers.
Discount retailer Dollar Tree fell 1% before the bell after it missed Wall Street’s third-quarter sales and profit targets.
Oil prices rose ahead of a meeting of OPEC members set for Thursday. Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.30 to $77.71 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude added $1.12 to $82.59 per barrel.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.27% early today, down from 4.33% late Tuesday. That’s pressuring the dollar, which fell to 147.45 Japanese yen.
