U.S. stock futures declined just slightly Tuesday morning, pointing to probably a somewhat flat start for Wall Street. The Federal Reserve today begins its two-day policy meeting, but investors will likely not hear anything until tomorrow. In the meanwhile, several economic reports are due out this morning.While no real surprises are expected when the Fed announces its policy tomorrow and is widely expected to hold rates steady at near zero. But it is the statement that investors will want to hear and what it says about the outlook for the U.S. economy. But even as some economists are ready to declare the end of the recession, the Fed will probably more hesitant and won't declare we're in recovery mode yet.
Several economic reports are due out today, including second quarter productivity and unit labor costs due out at 8:30 a.m. The first is expected to have increased, the second to have fallen. At 10:00 a.m., June wholesale inventories are due out.
Overseas, Asian markets finished mostly higher, while European markets were mixed investors weighed new economic reports that showed China's stimulus measures were helping the country recover from the global downturn, though weak fundamentals persist.
At home, despite signs that the financial system has stabilized, banks remain threatened by billions of dollars of bad loans on their balance sheets, and more could fail if the economy worsens, a congressional watchdog reported.
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