US stock futures fall as elections, Fed meeting approach

U.S. stock index futures fell in evening deals on Sunday as anticipation of a tight presidential election and a Federal Reserve meeting later in the week kept investors averse towards risk-driven assets.

Futures steadied after Wall Street tumbled from record highs last week, following a batch of strong economic prints, especially inflation, and middling earnings from the technology sector.

S&P 500 Futures fell 0.1% to 5,750.25 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.3% to 20,105.0 points by 18:19 ET (22:19 GMT). Dow Jones Futures fell 0.2% to 42,108.0 points.

Trump, Harris set for tight presidential race
Investors were largely on edge before the presidential elections on Tuesday, with recent polls showing Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were set for a tight race.

Recent increases in the dollar and Treasury yields showed some investors were positioning for a Trump victory, which is expected to result in more inflationary policies.

But polls showed the race was still too close to call, with uncertainty over the next President likely to weigh on risk-driven markets in the near-term.

Fed set to cut interest rates
Focus this week is also on a Fed meeting, with the central bank widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points after a 50 bps cut in September.

Markets will be watching for any commentary from the Fed on its plans for future rate cuts, especially in the light of recent data showing resilience in the U.S. economy and stickiness in inflation, which dampen the outlook for lower rates.

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But Fed Chair Jerome Powell is unlikely to commit to any set pace of monetary easing, given that the central bank has so far maintained a data-driven approach to policy.

Still, the meeting comes after nonfarm payrolls data on Friday showed job growth slowed sharply in October, with a downward revision in readings for the past two months indicating that the labor market was cooling.

Wall St nurses weekly losses amid mixed earnings
Wall Street indexes were nursing losses from the past week following a slew of mixed earnings from heavyweight technology stocks.

While earnings for the September quarter mostly beat expectations, a middling outlook from several majors including Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), along with expectations of higher capital spending, weighed on major tech stocks.

Wall Street indexes were afforded some relief from softer-than-expected payrolls data on Friday. But they were down between 1% and 3% for the past week.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,728.8 points on Friday, while the NASDAQ Composite rose 0.8% to 18,239.92 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 42,052.19 points.

The earnings season is set to continue this week, with prints from Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VRTX) and Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ:FANG) due on Monday.