By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com -- Stocks paused earlier Wednesday and then shot higher after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and announced it would begin to cut back on its monthly bond purchases, an acknowledgement that the U.S. economy was well on its way to recovery.
But Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that challenges remain.
The Fed will start cutting back on its bond purchases little by little starting this month, aiming to be done by sometime next year. Powell repeated his oft-cited mantra that price increases would be “transitory” and won’t require swift changes to interest rates.
But the Fed pointed to global supply difficulties, saying they would need to ease in order for prices to drop.
"As the pandemic subsides, supply-chain bottlenecks will abate and job growth will move back up," Powell said during a news conference. "And as that happens, inflation will decline from today's elevated levels. Of course, the timing of that is highly uncertain."
Wall Street has largely ignored concerns around rising price pressures. Strong third-quarter earnings and positive outlooks lifted U.S. stocks to new records in recent days. commentary about growth going forward that drove U.S. stocks to record highs this week.
U.S. private employers maintained hiring in October, according to the private payroll report by ADP, which came out two days before the government’s highly anticipated jobs report for October.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Uber earnings
Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER)’s revenue in the third quarter is seen at $4.42 billion with loss per share expected to come in at 34 cents. But fellow ride-hailing company Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) reported a good return in demand for the quarter, so analysts will be looking to see how Uber did.
2. Airbnb earnings
Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ:ABNB) is expected to report a third-quarter profit per share of 72 cents on revenue of $2.06 billion, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com. Analysts want to hear how the holiday travel season is shaping up in terms of bookings.
3. Square earnings
Square Inc (NYSE:SQ)’s third-quarter revenue is likely to be $4.38 billion with profit per share seen coming in at 36 cents.
-- Reuters contributed to this report