By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Pranav Kashyap
(Reuters) -Stock index futures were little changed on Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting for clues on the policy path, while Alphabet dipped after the U.S. said it was considering breaking up Google.
Shares of Alphabet fell 1.2% in premarket trading after the U.S. Department of Justice said it may ask a judge to force Google to divest parts of its business, including the Chrome internet browser and Android operating system, to curtail its search monopoly.
Dow E-minis were down 23 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 2.25 points, or 0.04%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 13.25 points, or 0.07%.
Indexes closed higher on Tuesday after rebounding from Monday’s selloff, with technology stocks leading the charge as U.S. Treasury yields eased.
This week’s trading has been particularly volatile, with investors adjusting their expectations for rate cuts, seeking new catalysts for a clearer market direction. Key inflation data on Thursday and the upcoming third-quarter corporate earnings season are now in focus.
Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting, when policymakers kicked off monetary policy easing with a 50-basis-point rate cut, are due at 2:00 p.m. ET.
“The tone of the Fed minutes should not change expectations of further rate cuts. The Fed is still scrambling to catch up with inflation slowing in the U.S. and started cutting rates late, but expectations about the pace of easing may be set by the minutes,” said Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Commentary from a number of Fed officials including Philip Jefferson, Thomas Barkin, Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly are also expected through the day.
Investors are overwhelmingly pricing in a 25-basis-point cut at the Fed’s November meeting, with some now seeing a slight chance the central bank will keep rates on hold, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Prior to the release of strong employment data last week, markets were leaning towards an outsized 50-bps cut in November.
Among single stocks, shares of Arcadium Lithium soared 31.1% after Rio Tinto said it would acquire the miner for $6.7 billion. Rio Tinto’s U.S.-listing slipped 1.1%.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms dropped for a second day, tracking a slide in domestic stocks as investors continued to question if China would announce new stimulus measures.
Alibaba Group fell 2.9%, PDD Holdings lost 3.6% and JD.Com dropped 4.4%.
Additionally, investors were also keeping a watch on the impact of Category 5 Hurricane Milton as well as the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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