Stock futures traded slightly higher Tuesday evening as investors looked ahead to a key monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve.
Contracts on the S&P 500 edged up. Earlier, the three major U.S. stock indexes closed out the session lower, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq pulling back from record highs logged earlier this week.
Traders are anxiously awaiting the conclusion of the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting, which will culminate with a policy statement Wednesday afternoon and a press conference from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Both come at a critical juncture in the U.S. economic recovery, with economic activity accelerating and producing inflationary pressures that some market participants believe may warrant a nearer-term shift to monetary policy than the central bank has currently telegraphed.
On Tuesday, new economic data showed producer prices surged at the fastest year-on-year rate on record, with inflationary pressures reverberating across the supply chain as demand picks up. The data added to a spate of other readings corroborating these rising prices, with both the core consumer price index and core personal consumption expenditures at a near 30-year high in May.
