US stocks are seen starting mixed Wednesday after a strong finish yesterday as traders eye jobs data and a rate decision from the Federal Reserve.
On the corporate front, tech behemoth Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is likely to be in focus after its fiscal third-quarter earnings after hours beat analyst estimates on several fronts, including earnings, revenue, average selling price and services revenue.
The group reported earnings of US$2.34 per share on revenue of US$53.3bn compared with US$1.67 EPS on revenue of US$45.4bn in the previous year’s third quarter.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 108 points higher at 25,415m, while the Nasdaq rose over 41 points to 7,671. The S&P 500 added over 13 points to stand at 2,816.
Apple is moments away from being the world’s first trillion dollar company. It turns out just building a few extremely great products, that a large number of people want to pay for, can work really well.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) 1 August 2018
In futures trade today, the Dow Jones is off 16; the Nasdaq is ahead by 20 points and the S&P 500 is flat.
Craig Erlam, analyst at spreadbetter at Oanda, said: "The US will once again be a focus for investors on Wednesday, as we await labour market data from ADP and the latest interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve.
"This comes in a week in which we’ve already got some insight into US consumers, with income, spending and inflation figures on Tuesday looking very healthy," he noted.
"Inflation – as per the Fed’s preferred core PCE measure – was 1.9% in June, unchanged from a month earlier and almost in line with the central bank’s 2% target."
In Europe, benchmarks are seeing red. FTSE 100 is off over 82 points; the German DAX is down over 28 and the CAC 40 is off over two points at 5,508. The Bank of England tomorrow is due to make an interest rate decision.
In Asia overnight, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose nearly 193 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost over 51 at 2,824.