The FOMC is the focus
The highlight of the day will of course be the FOMC rate decision at 2 PM ET/1900 GDT. No rate change is expected. The market will monitor the comments from Fed's chair Powell on the risks to the economy (what will he say about the coronavirus ?) at his press conference scheduled to start at 2:30 PM ET/1930 GMT.
In other potential market moving news today:
- US advance goods trade balance for the month of December will be released at 8:30 AM ET/1330 GMT with expectations of -65.0 billion versus -63.2 billion in November
- Wholesale inventories for December preliminary expected to rise by 0.1% versus -0.1%. Retail inventories for December are also expected to rise by 0.1% after a -0.8% decline. Both will also be released at 8:30 AM ET/1330 GMT
- Later at 10 AM ET/1500 GMT US pending home sales for the month of December expected to rise by 0.5%. Last month pending home sales rose by 1.2%. The year on year is expected to rise by 10.3% versus 5.6% last month
- At 10:30 AM ET/1530 GMT the DOE will release the weekly oil inventory data. Crude oil inventories are expected to show a build inventories of 1290K vs the draw last week at -405K. The private data showed a surprise draw of -4270M. Gasoline inventories rose by 3270M. The estimate this morning's for a build of 1581K
After the close, Facebook, Tesla, PayPal, and Microsoft will report their earnings.
Coronavirus updates also be eyed.
