The Federal Reserve's final meeting of the year will take place this week
Stock futures are flat this morning, as Wall Street looks towards the Federal Reserve's final interest rate decision of the year. Investors hope to see signs that the central bank will begin to cut interest rates at its meeting later this week. Further, traders await inflation data amid the heat of the holiday shopping season.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.5 million call contracts and 892,147 put contracts traded Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.56, and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.69.
- Shares of Macy's Inc (NYSE:M) is 15.5% higher before the open, after the Wall Street Journal broke the news that two investment firms have offered to buyout the retail giant for $5.8 billion, or $21 per share. Should today's premarket gains hold, it will bring Macy's stock back within striking distance of its year-to-date breakeven mark, which it currently sits nearly 16% below.
- Citi upgraded Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) to "buy" from "neutral" and hiked its price target to $135, on confidence blue chip's ability to protect its earnings-per-share. Nike stock is 1.6% higher in electronic trading, looking to scale its 0.9% year-to-date deficit.
- Meanwhile, RBC upgraded Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS), sending the shares 2.7% higher ahead of the start to add to a 54.3% year-over-year lead. The analyst upgraded PNS "outperform" from "sector perform" and hiked its priced target to $46, calling the social media name the way to play the "shift from internet-based ad platforms."
- The Fed's final interest rate decision and more inflation data is due out this week.
Chinese Economic Data Influences Asian markets
Asian markets settled mostly higher on Monday, following a slew of economic data out of China. Specifically, the country’s consumer price index (CPI) fell a wider-than-expected 0.5% compared to last year – its biggest drop since November 2020 – while the producer price index (PPI) shed 3%, which was also more than analysts anticipated. In response, China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.7%, while the South Korean Kospi rose 0.3%. Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei jumped 1.5% amid hopes the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will forego an interest rate hike next week, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8%.
European markets are mixed, as investors anxiously await the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later this week. France’s CAC 40 is up 0.4%, the German DAX is sporting a 0.1% lead, and London’s FTSE 100 is 0.5% lower.