Wall St set to open higher at start of big week for earnings, Fed meet

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) -U.S. stock indexes were set to open higher on Monday as investors braced for a Federal Reserve policy meeting during the week and results from some of the biggest companies to gauge the impact of a strong dollar and soaring inflation on demand.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta Platforms Inc, which together account for $8.9 trillion in market capitalization, or a quarter of the benchmark index's weightage, are scheduled to post earnings this week.

"The really big part of earnings season is here. So with confidence coming back right now, it can also quickly dissipate if we have disappointments from companies like Google and Microsoft on Tuesday," said Dennis Dick, retail trader at Triple D Trading.

Shares of the high-growth companies rose between 0.5% and 1.2% in premarket trading.

The dollar, hovering near 20-year highs following an aggressive tightening cycle by the Fed, is expected be a headwind for U.S. companies, especially those with a big global presence.

Financial stocks including American Express Co (NYSE:AXP) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) advanced more than 1% each. Industrial shares such as Boeing (NYSE:BA) Co and 3M Co, also set to report this week, gained 0.8% each.

All of the three major indexes closed higher last week. The tech heavy Nasdaq added 3.3%, the S&P 500 2.4% and the Dow gained 2%.

The Fed is widely expected to deliver another super-sized 75 basis-point rate hike at the end of its two-day monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, effectively ending pandemic-era support for the U.S. economy. Focus will also be on the press conference by Chair Jerome Powell for clues on policymakers' thinking on future rate hikes amid concerns over an aggressive tightening tipping the economy into a recession.

"We expect Powell to remind that 75bps hikes are unusually large and that the funds rate is close to the FOMC's estimate of its longer-run level," said Paolo Zanghieri, senior economist at Generali (BIT:GASI) Investments.

"This, and the signs of a material slowdown of the economy should tilt the balance for a 50 bps hike (in September), followed by another one in November and December."

Futures contracts tied to the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy rate suggested on Monday that benchmark interest rates will peak in January 2023 compared to February last week.

Meanwhile, advance second-quarter GDP data on Thursday is likely to be negative.

At 8:35 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 148 points, or 0.46%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 15.75 points, or 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 36.25 points, or 0.29%.

Shares of Newmont Corp fell 3.3% after the miner raised its annual cost forecast and missed its second-quarter profit, hurt by lower gold prices and inflationary pressures.