Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a lower open on Monday, following a 1% surge on Friday that brought Wall Street to post a 4-week winning streak and as all eyes turn towards the Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting to take place on March 15 and 16.
As a reminder, U.S. clocks moved forward one hour on March 13 due to daylight savings time which left the difference between New York and GMT at four hours.
The blue-chip Dow futures dropped 12 points, or 0.07%, by 10:57GMT, or 6:57AM ET, the S&P 500 futures fell 3 points, or 0.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 3 points, or 0.07%.
On an extremely light calendar day lacking in economic data and major earnings reports, market participants are making adjustments to their portfolios based on expectations for the message from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
Experts do not expect a change in rates to come at the meeting, but Fed members will be updating their economic projections and the statement will be followed by a press conference from Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
In this light, markets will hang on Yellen’s words for any indication for the future path of policy tightening and, while some economists think the Fed will try and keep April on the table for the first move, most don’t expect even a remote possibility of further tightening until June at the earliest.
Meanwhile, European markets appeared to be little concerned about weak data from China published over the past weekend that showed the lowest rate of growth in factory output since November 2008 and the lowest reading of retail sales since May 2015.
The euro zone did release positive data with industrial production from January returning to growth and beating consensus driven particularly by increased output of capital goods, such as equipment and machinery.
Additionally, oil prices gave up ground, pulling back from a 3-month high, after Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said his country won't join a group production freeze until it doubles its post-sanctions output and while traders await the release of the OPEC monthly oil market report on Friday.
In other news, a meeting between oil producers, OPEC and non-OPEC, on an output freeze is likely to take place in mid-April, according to OPEC sources cited by Reuters.
U.S. crude futures fell 1.95% to $37.75by 10:59AM GMT or 6:59AM ET, while Brent oil traded down 1.44% to $39.81.
Of note on the business front, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (NYSE:HOT) surged 10% in the pre-market after receiving a takeover bid of $76 a share.