(News Bulletin 247) – Wall Street should open slightly higher on Monday morning, even if investors could hesitate to take too sharp positions before the major monetary meetings of the week.

Half an hour before the opening, the futures contracts on the major New York indices advanced from 0.1% to 0.5%, announcing a start to the session in the green.

The markets could remain relatively soft until the announcement, early Wednesday afternoon, of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions.

The consensus is almost unanimous in anticipating a first ‘status quo’ from the American central bank after ten rate hikes in a row, but its president, Jerome Powell, should not close the door to another rise in July.

According to the CME Group’s FedWatch barometer, the probability estimated by investors of maintaining rates on Wednesday fluctuates around 74%, while 51% of them expect a rise next month.

From a historical point of view, however, it often pays to buy stocks the day before the Fed’s decisions and sell them the day after the central bank’s announcements, regardless of the nature of its initiatives.

Along with the Fed’s measures, the markets are awaiting several statistics in the coming days that will allow them to learn more about the current health of the economy.

The consumer price figures in the United States, expected tomorrow, will be closely scrutinized by investors.

Due to the decline in gasoline prices, everything seems to point to a net decline in the annual inflation rate in May, which could fall from 4.9% to 4.1%, its lowest level in two years.

If the Fed remains more focused on the evolution of services prices, which are still rising at a rapid pace, signs of improvement on the inflation front would support the scenario of a ‘pause’ in the action of the Fed and could thus support the stock markets.

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