Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Tick Lower Ahead of Expected Fed Rate Cut; Treasury Yields Slip

At long last, it’s Fed decision day!

U.S. stock futures and 10-year Treasury yields were slightly lower early Wednesday, hours before the Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time this year.

In addition to the central bank’s decision on rates—will it be a 25- or 50-basis-point cut?—investors are waiting for the quarterly projections from Federal Open Market Committee members on where the economy and rates are headed, as well as a press conference from Fed chair Jerome Powell following the announcement.

Futures associated with the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq were pointing marginally lower a day after the indexes set fresh all-time intraday highs before closing down about 0.1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were fractionally down after the blue-chip index ended 0.3% lower Tuesday.

Treasury yields were lower, with the 10-year yield, which affects borrowing costs on a variety of consumer and commercial loans, ticking down to 4.01% from 4.03% at Tuesday’s close. Yields have declined in recent weeks to their lowest levels this year in anticipation of rate cuts.

Gold futures pulled back from all-time highs and were down 0.6% at $3,700 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, were nearly 1% lower at $63.95. Bitcoin was trading slightly lower at around $116,400. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, was up slightly at 96.78.

In corporate news, Nvidia (NVDA) shares were down 1.5% in premarket trading following a report that China has banned its biggest tech companies from buying artificial intelligence chips from the American firm.

Also, Workday (WDAY) stock popped 8% as Elliott Investment Management said it had taken a $2 billion stake in the HR software firm; shares of Meta Platforms (META) ticked lower ahead of a two-day developers conference where the Facebook and Instagram parent is expected to showcase its latest AI-powered glasses; and StubHub shares were set to debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “STUB” after the ticket reseller priced its IPO in the middle of its range.