Wall Street moves into the green in early deals as traders eye Fed minutes

Wall Street got off to a positive start on Wednesday morning, with the Nasdaq moving into record territory in early deals.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.08% at 34,606 while the S&P 500 climbed 0.22% to 4,353 and the Nasdaq rose 0.38% to 14,719.

While markets appear to be in a good mood so far, that could all change when the latest Fed minutes appear later as fears linger of a hawkish shift at the central bank after it said it expects two interest rate hikes in 2023 at the conclusion of its June meeting, as opposed to nothing until 2024 previously.

7:40am: Wall Street to start on the front foot

The main indices on Wall Street are expected to start Wednesday’s session in the green as traders await the minutes of the June meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

Spread-betters are predicting the Dow Jones Industrial Average will open around 25 points higher while the S&P 500 is expected to rise 8 points and the Nasdaq to jump 81 points.

“All eyes will be on the FOMC minutes due to be released later today. The minutes are from the mid-June Fed meeting, which saw the US central bank adopt a more hawkish stance. At the June meeting, the Fed announced it expects two rate hikes in 2023, as opposed to nothing until 2024 previously”, said Sophie Griffiths at OANDA.

“Should the minutes have a strong hawkish tilt, they could unnerve investors. However, this meeting was three weeks ago and could be now considered stale, particularly in light of the tick higher in unemployment in the June NFP report and yesterday’s weaker ISM services data”, she added.

Four things to watch for on Wednesday:

• Firms reporting earnings today include industrial products maker MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc (NYSE:MSM), lubricant and chemicals firm WD-40 Co (NASDAQ:WDFC) and capital markets group Saratoga Investment Corp (NYSE:SAR)
• Oil prices are likely to be in focus as a standoff over strategy continued among the OPEC+ group of major petroleum producing countries
• Traders may also be keeping an eye out for more details on wood pellet grill maker Traeger after it filed for an initial public offering on Tuesday
• On the macro front, aside from the FOMC minutes there may be some interest in US job openings numbers as well as economic optimism readings

Story by ProactiveInvestors