Wall Street inched lower early today as more corporate earnings trickled in, the Associated Press reports, but a lack of economic data gave markets little to work with coming off the best week of the year. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3% before the bell.
This upcoming week will be a slower one for corporate profit reports. Roughly 50 companies in the S&P 500, mostly lower profile, are set to say how much they earned during the summer. That’s down from about 150 companies that reported last week.
The events with perhaps the most potential to shake markets this upcoming week are speeches by officials from the Federal Reserve.
The week’s end will bring a preliminary report on U.S. households’ inflation expectations. The Fed watches that closely on the premise that too-high expectations could trigger a vicious cycle that keeps inflation high.
In premarket trading today, Uber rose nearly 1% after the ride-hailing company said gross bookings grew 21% from last year, boosting its third-quarter profit to $221 million on sales of $9.3 billion.
Late Monday, office-sharing company WeWork confirmed it is seeking bankruptcy protection.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude gave up $1.37 to $79.45 in electronic trading today on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $1.51 to $83.67 per barrel.
In other trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 150.49 Japanese yen from 150.08 yen.
