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Investing.com – U.S. stocks surged heading into the closing bell on Wednesday, in a relief rally after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell put to rest concerns about even bigger rate increases.
The Fed, as expected, raised the benchmark interest rate by a half-point and said it would start tapering its $9 trillion bond portfolio June 1. But Powell told a reporter during a press conference that a 75-point hike was not under consideration.
That perhaps signals the central bank isn’t going to be as aggressive as some thought in trying to curb inflation, which can tip the economy into recession.
Powell remarked on the tightness of the labor market, and the government’s report on April jobs due out on Friday could add some color to that view. Analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the report will show the addition of 391,000 jobs last month.
Companies such as Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) and LYFT Inc (NASDAQ:LYFT), the rival ride-hailing apps – are talking about spending on incentives to bring back workers, in their case drivers, amid the demand for workers. Elsewhere, workers at big tech companies such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) have been trying to organize unions, following in the footsteps of workers at Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX)
Oil is also surging ahead of Thursday’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies to talk about production levels. So far, the cartel has tried to gradually add supply, though a new proposal by the European Union to ban Russian imports could complicate matters.
Oil majors Shell (LON:RDSa) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) report on Thursday, as well.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Shell earnings
With oil prices recently surging, analysts polled by Investing.com expect Shell PLC ADR (NYSE:SHEL) to post earnings of $2.18 on revenue of $80.45 billion. Analysts will be listening to its comments on Russia operations.
2. Shopify outlook
Meanwhile, e-commerce giant Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP) is expected to post earnings of 64 cents per share on revenue of $1.24 billion.
3. Beer earnings
And finally, analysts see brewing company Anheuser Busch Inbev (EBR:ABI) NV ADR (NYSE:BUD)’s earnings coming in at 48 cents per share on revenue of $13.12 billion.
