Futures mixed, eyes on Fed speakers

Global Stock Markets

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed opening for Wall Street on Tuesday, with worry about Republican tax plans and the economy’s ability to deal with more rises in interest rates preventing sharper gains. 

Among early movers, Home Depot (HD.N) fell back around half a percent after gaining on the back of better-than-expected profit and sales at the largest U.S. home improvement chain.

U.S.-listed shares of Vodafone (VOD.O) jumped about 5 percent after it raised full-year earnings growth forecast to 10 percent.

Investors are concerned that a tightening gap between short and long-term U.S. government bond yields suggests the Federal Reserve may be in danger of hiking rates too much and killing longer term inflation and growth.

Fed chair Janet Yellen told a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt the Fed’s guidance about its likely future policy path is beneficial but should always be viewed as conditional on how the economy actually develops.

Chicago Fed Chief Charles Evans, speaking in the same event, called for a new approach to rate-setting that would allow the central bank to respond to shocks when rate cuts alone are not enough.

13 central bank officials, including the heads of the European, British and Japanese central banks, are speaking at the event on Tuesday.

Data on Tuesday is expected to show producer price increased 0.1 percent in October, compared with a rise of 0.4 percent a month earlier. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Wall Street stocks rose on Monday as a sharp drop in General Electric (GE.N) shares was more than offset by gains in high dividend-paying sectors including consumer staples and utilities.

Futures snapshot at 7:02 a.m. ET:

Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 12 points, or 0.05 percent, with 21,101 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 3 points, or 0.12 percent, with 131,676 contracts traded.
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 1.25 points, or 0.02 percent, on volume of 21,734 contracts.