United States equity futures edged higher on Tuesday evening (Wednesday AEST) as investors monitored the fallout from President Donald Trump’s decision to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a move that Cook plans to challenge in court.
ANZ analysts noted that the unprecedented development “has added to ongoing uncertainty and perceptions of political influence on Fed policy”, but stressed that it has not “altered the economic landscape”.
“Our assessment is that the macro configuration – weak labour market and baseline assumption of a one-off impact of tariffs on inflation – warrants a resumption in easing.
"Indeed, Chair Powell, in his Jackson Hole speech, guided that it may be appropriate to adjust the Fed’s policy stance.
"We therefore remain comfortable with the view that the Fed will cut the policy rate by 25bp at the upcoming September meeting,” ANZ added.
Corporate earnings provided further support in after-hours trading. MongoDB surged 28.5% after posting adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1 on revenue of US$591.4 million, comfortably beating estimates of $0.67 per share on $553.9 million revenue.
Okta rose 6.7% as quarterly results and its full-year forecast topped expectations. The identity software firm reported adjusted EPS of $0.91 on revenue of $728 million, ahead of forecasts for $0.84 per share on revenue of $711.2 million.
PVH Corp. climbed 6.1% after reporting fiscal second-quarter adjusted EPS of $2.52 on revenue of $2.17 billion, exceeding estimates of $2.01 per share on $2.12 billion revenue.
During Tuesday’s regular session, Wall Street benchmarks closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.3%, the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.4%.
On the data front, U.S. consumer sentiment softened slightly. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell 1.3 points in August to 97.4, down from July’s revised 98.7, though still ahead of market expectations of 96.2.
