Last Updated: 4:02 PM EST
Stock indices finished today’s trading session in the green. The Nasdaq 100 (NDX), the S&P 500 (SPX), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 0.26%, 0.56%, and 0.83%, respectively. The Census Bureau released its U.S. Housing Starts report today, which measures the change in new residential buildings that began construction in the reported month on an annualized basis.
In February, housing starts came in at 1.521 million versus expectations of 1.43 million. In addition, on a month-over-month basis, housing starts jumped by 10.7%. This follows a 12.3% decrease in last month’s report.
In addition, U.S. Building Permits beat expectations, with a print of 1.518 million compared to the forecast of 1.5 million. This was an increase from the prior month’s report, which came in at 1.489 million, equating to an increase of 1.9% month-over-month.
First Published: 4:59 AM EST
U.S. futures inched lower on Tuesday morning as investors focused on the Federal Reserve’s meeting and evaluated updates from Nvidia’s (NVDA) first-ever GTC conference yesterday. NVDA introduced its latest AI chip under the Blackwell platform during the conference. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 (NDX), S&P 500 (SPX), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) were down by about 0.32%, 0.16%, and 0.03%, respectively, at 4:32 a.m. EST, March 19.
In yesterday’s regular trading session, the Dow rose 0.2%, the S&P 500 gained 0.63%, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.82%, driven by a rally in tech stocks. The stocks of Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL) climbed higher by nearly 1% and 5%, respectively, on reports that the companies are in talks to allow Google’s Gemini AI to power some of the iPhone’s features. Further, Tesla (TSLA) gained 6.3% due to its plans to increase Model Y electric vehicle prices in Europe and the US.
The Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting is scheduled to begin today. Markets are eager to gain insights into the interest rate scenario from the dot plot, which is a visual representation of the preferred interest rate path of each Fed official. In December, the dot plot revealed three rate cuts for 2024. However, the higher-than-expected inflation report has trimmed expectations of these rate cuts.
Further, the investors are looking ahead to the release of the Building Permits and Housing Starts report for February, which provides information about the health of the housing market. On the earnings front, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) will report quarterly numbers today.
Meanwhile, the U.S. 10-year treasury yield was down at the time of writing, floating near 4.33%. At the same time, WTI crude oil futures trended higher, hovering near $82.54 per barrel as of the last check. Persistent geopolitical tensions and OPEC+ production cuts have raised supply concerns and pushed oil prices to their highest levels since early November 2023.
Elsewhere, European indices opened lower today as investors looked ahead to the U.S. Fed’s monetary policy meeting.
Asia-Pacific Markets Ended Mixed on Tuesday
Asia-Pacific indices ended today’s session on a mixed note as the markets geared up for the U.S. central bank’s interest rate decision. Additionally, the Japanese indices closed higher as the Bank of Japan raised its short-term interest rate for the first time since 2007.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined by 1.24%. Also, China’s Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component indices ended lower by 0.72% and 0.58%, respectively. However, Japan’s Nikkei and Topix indices were up by 0.66% and 1.06%, respectively.
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