Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures dipped on Wednesday as investors braced for earnings from Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, while retail sales and producer price data later in the day were expected to offer fresh insight on the health of the economy.
Shares of Bank of America edged higher, while Wells Fargo and Citigroup edged lower in premarket trading ahead of their results. It comes a day after JPMorgan executives warned that a proposed ceiling on credit-card interest rates could severely hurt consumers and drag down financials, hurting financial stocks.
Analysts largely expect U.S. big banks to post a jump in investment banking fees due to a revival in dealmaking.
Wall Street’s main indexes have stalled this week after the Dow and the S&P 500 touched record highs, with traders awaiting fourth-quarter earnings to see if they meet elevated expectations.
Analysts project S&P 500 companies will deliver average fourth-quarter earnings growth of 8.8% year-on-year, lifting full-year 2025 bottom-line expansion to 13.2%, according to IBES LSEG data.
At 5:10 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis were down 12.25 points, or 0.17%, Dow E-minis were down 83 points, or 0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 57.25 points, or 0.22%.
After December’s expected consumer-price rise kept rate‑cut bets intact for the back half of the year, investors are now watching Wednesday’s producer price and retail sales releases, alongside speeches from Fed voting members John Williams, Anna Paulson, Stephen Miran and Neel Kashkari.
Interest rates are expected to stay unchanged for the most part of the first half of 2026, including at the Fed’s January meeting, provided inflation and growth remain steady. Traders continue to expect at least two reductions later in the year, LSEG data showed.
Meanwhile, the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers will meet with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the White House later in the day following weeks of threats by President Donald Trump to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
So far, markets have largely overlooked geopolitical risks such as the U.S. toppling Venezuela’s leader, with enthusiasm around artificial intelligence and fourth-quarter results driving U.S. indexes to new peaks.
The stock market’s record rally is also showing early signs of broadening out this year, with S&P 400 midcaps and S&P 600 smallcaps outperforming the largecap S&P 500 so far this year.
Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet fell 3.3% and 2.5%, respectively before the bell after sources told Reuters that Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using some U.S. and Israeli cybersecurity software due to national security concerns.
(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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