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Investing.com — Tech stocks weighed on the broader market on Tuesday after more data on inflation fanned the flames of fear about the Federal Reserve’s response.
Investors reined in on growth stocks, which lose their luster when interest rates are rising because the dollar loses value in the future.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell for another day, falling short of breaching the $3 trillion in market value threshold. There’s still time, of course, with holiday sales of new iPhones expected to be strong, according to some analysts, and the anticipated introduction of an augmented reality headphone next year.
Producer prices rose 0.8% in November, which was more than the 0.5% gain expected. For the year, producer prices rose 9.6%, more fodder for those who believe inflation is becoming a long-term problem.
The Fed’s policy-setting meeting concludes on Wednesday, with officials expected to announce they will hasten their effort to cut bond buying by doubling the cuts they announced in November. Tapering by $30 billion a month could end the program completely by the spring, clearing the Fed’s path to raise rates.
Aside from the Fed announcement at 2:00 PM ET on Wednesday, it is an otherwise quiet period on the calendar. Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Homebuilder earnings
Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) will report its fourth-quarter numbers Wednesday. The company is expected to report a profit per share of $4.15 on revenue of $8.51 billion, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com.
2. Retail sales
Black Friday sales notwithstanding, retail sales are seen rising by only 0.8% month-on-month in November, less than half of October’s 1.7% growth. The data are released at 8:30 AM ET.
3. Oil inventories
Oil prices have fallen on global growth concerns sparked by the lightning fast spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Analysts are looking to inventory reports to gauge supply versus demand.
Crude inventories are seen falling by 2.6 million barrels in the week to December 10. The inventories had fallen 240,000 barrels in the week prior. The Energy Information Administration will release the data on Wednesday at 10:30 AM ET.
