Wall Street becalmed

US index futures are suggesting a close on flat start to the day’s trade for equities, although with a flurry of Federal Reserve policymakers due to give speeches throughout the session, anything that serves to reinforce the idea that a more dovish rhetoric may prevail has the potential to fire stocks once again. The G20 summit in Japan creeps ever closer too, with that side meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi likely to remain under close scrutiny. Uncertainty over the outlook for tariffs was seen as being responsible for a disappointing manufacturing activity survey from the Dallas Fed yesterday, suggesting again that there’s a real domestic cost associated with current trade policies.

Beyond comments from the Fed, the US consumer confidence index for June and new home sales for May are both due for release. Again these have the potential to show the health of the underlying economy and indicate whether there’s any concern building amongst the broader population as to the negative impact of the tariff agenda. Quarterly earnings from FedEx after the market close also have the potential to tell a wider story, given the fact shipping and logistics companies like this have the ability to be seen as a broader barometer of the economy.  For now however it does appear that wait and see is the order of the day.

Ahead of the open the market is calling the DOW up 12 at 26740 and the S&P unchanged at 2945.