US Stock Futures Edge Lower

The futures contracts of the US stock index were marginally traded on Wednesday, continuing in weakness following Wall Street’s poor start to the second quarter, as uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s plans to lower interest rates and expectations for key job data impacted sentiment.

Major Wall Street indices recorded two sessions of sharp losses following a series of hawkish comments from senior Federal Reserve officials regarding interest rate cuts. While the Federal Reserve took a somewhat cautious tone during its March meeting, a significant number of officials warned after the meeting that steady inflation and strength in the labor market could prevent the bank from lowering interest rates early this year. Data on personal consumption expenditures for February remained steady, while traders awaited the release of non-farm payroll data for March scheduled for Friday.

The largest losses were in technology stocks on Wall Street, where Treasury bond yields also rose amid long-term interest rate increases. NVIDIA Corporation dropped by over 1% in pre-market trading after falling by nearly 10% from its March highs.

Crude oil remained near its recent highs as traders absorbed signs of shrinking US inventories and further potential supply disruptions. Data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday indicated a decrease of about 2.3 million barrels in US crude inventories for the week ending March 28—more than the expected withdrawal of 2 million barrels. While this reading follows a significant increase of 9.3 million barrels in the previous week, it also marks the third consecutive weekly drawdown in inventories over the past four weeks.

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