U.S. stock futures rose marginally Wednesday morning as the Federal Reserve’s highly-anticipated rate announcement kept investors on edge.
Futures on the benchmark S&P 500 ticked up 0.2%, while futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 75 points, or 0.2%. Contracts on the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite were just above breakeven.
Moves in the early trade come after all three major averages retreated roughly 1% in the previous session and the VIX – Wall Street’s volatility gauge – edged up 5.4% to 27.16.
Activity across the bond market has been closely watched all week. Treasury yields paused a perilous climb Wednesday morning but remained near fresh highs. The benchmark U.S. 10-year note held above 3.5%, its highest level since 2011, while the 2-year Treasury note was well above a 15-year high of 3.9%.
Among market movers early Wednesday was Beyond Meat (BYND). Shares of the meat substitute producer sank nearly 3% pre-market after the company suspended its Chief Operating Officer Doug Ramsey over his arrest for allegedly biting a man’s nose this weekend in a road rage incident.
Stitch Fix (SFIX) shares tanked nearly 10% ahead of the bell after the company reported disappointing fourth-quarter revenue expectations and sales guidance and posted a drop in active clients.
U.S. central bank officials are set to deliver a third-consecutive 75-basis-point increase to their benchmark policy rate Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. at the conclusion of policy-setting discussions.
Market participants will also tune in to remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell following the meeting, along with the economic projections of U.S. central bank members and the latest dot plot showing each official’s forecast for the Fed’s short-term interest rate.
