Market Focus Shifts to Earnings Season Amid Inflation and Rate Cut Speculation

MARKET INDEX

DAILY PIPZ Analyst Team

7/12/20241 min read

U.S. stock futures stabilized after profit-taking on Wall Street despite signs of easing inflation, ahead of the second-quarter earnings season kickoff with major banks reporting. Key players like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Bank of New York Mellon are set to release earnings, followed by Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America next week.

Investors are watching closely to see if high interest rates and persistent inflation impacted corporate earnings, amid expectations that the Federal Reserve may start cutting rates in September following softer-than-expected consumer price index data for June.

Despite optimism about rate cuts, concerns remain about slowing economic growth, prompting Wall Street indexes to retreat from record highs, particularly due to profit-taking in the technology sector, which had surged on AI hype.