Investing.com – Wall Street registered choppy trade with little conviction on Monday with investors unimpressed by positive earnings out during the session in a week that will see more than 80 S&P 500 firms report while downbeat data and U.S. crude dropping below $50 did little to lift market sentiment.
At 11:23AM ET (15:23GMT), the Dow Jones slipped 23 points, or 0.12%, the S&P 500 inched down 2 points, or 0.11% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 5 points, or 0.10%.
The NY Empire State manufacturing index caused concern on Monday after revealing an unexpected deterioration in October. The measure for the New York region saw its headline number fall deeper into negative territory with a reading of minus 6.8, compared to expectations for a recovery of 1.00. Somewhat offsetting the negative read, the six-month outlook suggested that manufacturing firms expect conditions to improve in the months ahead.
Additionally, the national industrial production did improve in September, but the 0.1% gain came in below expectations for a 2% rise.
After markets digested the data, Fed fund futures showed odds for a move in November at 7.2%, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Markets still considered the December policy decision as the most likely time for the Fed to return to normalization with odds standing at 73.6%.
That was despite the last Friday’s remarks from U.S. central bank’s chief Janet Yellen that the Fed might be willing to temporarily run a “high pressure economy” in remarks that were taken by analysts to be it would be possible to allow inflation to run over the 2% target, in what could reduce pressure for a quick return to policy tightening.
Over the weekend, Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren, who preferred a 25 basis point hike in September, said that he would be “comfortable” with an increase in November.
Still ahead on Monday, Fed vice chairman Stanley Fischer may provide his own outlook in a speech to the Economic Club of New York at 12:15PM ET (16:15GMT).
On the company front, the earnings season continued to progress positively. As of last Friday morning, 79% of the 34 S&P companies that had reported so far beat profit estimates, according to The Earnings Scout as reported by CNBC.
That came ahead of the more than 80 S&P components that will release quarterly numbers this week.
On Monday, shares in Hasbro Inc (NASDAQ:HAS) jumped almost 8% after the second largest U.S. toy maker beat consensus on both the top and bottom line.
However, investors weren’t convinced by the fact that Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) reported its first rise in profit in three quarters. Shares traded down by about 0.2%.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) were among notable companies scheduled to report after the closing bell.
Meanwhile, the direction of oil prices continued to hinge on bets that OPEC and other major oil producers might be able to reach some type of an agreement to curb production at the end of November.
Russia was expected to be involved in an agreement with its oil minister Alexander Novak reportedly indicating on Monday that Moscow could be ready to act on a production freeze.
Iran also expressed hopes that a deal would be reached and defined the preliminary agreement among OPEC members as a “baby step in the right direction”.
However, the sharp downturn in oil, falling more than 1% with West Texas passing below $50 a barrel, came when Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh suggested that OPEC members should examine at the November 30 meeting just how each country should produce.
Analysts have been skeptical over the capability of oil producers to come to an agreement on, much less comply with, individual production quotas.
Only adding to the global supply glut concerns, a report released last Friday by oil services provider Baker Hughes showed U.S. drillers added four rigs in the week to October 14. It was the 16th week in a row that oil drillers had gone without making cuts, indicating more production to come as U.S. drillers respond to higher prices by increasing output.
U.S. crude futures fell 1.39% to $49.65 by 11:33AM ET (15:33GMT), while Brent oil traded down 1.25% to $51.30.