Stock index futures in the US had dropped significantly, indicating that the benchmark gauges was looking for a repeat of its retreat just last month.
According to Bloomberg, Starbucks Corp shares dipped 1.8% in pre-market trading after agreeing to settle with Mondelez International Inc in a dispute regarding packed coffee. The state of financial companies had influenced the drop of global stocks, prompting shares of Bank of America Corp to decline. Securities on Standard & Poor's 500 Index, that are set to expire in December, dipped 0.1% to 1,758.7 early morning in New York. It experienced a record-high only after The Federal Reserve announced that it would be retaining its USD85 billion-a-month asset-buying program and had posted earnings that surpassed analysts' and observers' expectations. Today, the contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4%, which is 55 points to just 15,655.
Deutsche Postbank AG equity-market strategist Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein said over the phone from Bonn, Germany, "As the earnings season is almost over, there seems to be some nervousness back in the market. The economy is back in focus. Everybody is looking for hints at what may come from the Fed. Institutional investors are weighing whether they'll have time to change their investments in the first months of 2014, or if the Fed will act earlier."
32 analysts who participated in a Bloomberg survey on November 8 expected the policymakers of the Fed would scale back its bond buying from USD85 billion to USD70 billion at a two-day meeting in Marc next year. The policymakers would be meeting on December 17 to 18, said Bloomberg.
Investors, said Bloomberg, were expected to obtain valuable insight straight from Fed officials as some of them had public engagements this week. Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser will be talking tomorrow on monetary policy tomorrow, while Vice Chairman Janet Yellen would be testifying at a confirmation hearing regarding her appointment as the next chief of the Fed to be held by the the Senate Banking Committee.
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