Futures slip as markets await Fed minutes; Alphabet drops

(Reuters) – Stock index futures fell on Wednesday as investors awaited the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting for insight into the interest-rate path, while Alphabet dipped after the U.S. said it was considering breaking up Google.

Shares of Alphabet fell 1.4% in premarket trading after the U.S. Department of Justice said it may ask a judge to force Google to divest parts of its business, including the Chrome internet browser and Android operating system.

At 5:20 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 66 points, or 0.16%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 8.75 points, or 0.15%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 40.25 points, or 0.20%.

Indexes closed higher on Tuesday, recovering from Monday’s selloff, with technology stocks leading the gains as U.S. Treasury yields eased.

Trading has been choppy this week as investors reprice rate-cut expectations and await fresh catalysts to provide firm direction – primarily key inflation data and the start of the third-quarter corporate earnings season.

Minutes from the Fed’s September meeting, when policymakers kicked off policy easing with a 50-basis-point rate cut, are due later in the day.

“The tone of the Fed minutes should not change expectations of further rate cuts. The Fed is still scrambling to catch up with inflation slowing in the U.S. and started cutting rates late, but expectations about the pace of easing may be set by the minutes,” said Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Commentary from a number of Fed officials including Philip Jefferson, Thomas Barkin, Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly are also expected through the day.

Investors are overwhelmingly pricing in a 25-basis-point cut at the Fed’s November meeting, with some now seeing a slight chance the central bank will keep rates on hold, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Prior to the release of strong employment data last week, markets were leaning towards an outsized 50-bps cut in November.

Meanwhile, shares of Arcadium Lithium soared 31.3% after Rio Tinto said it would acquire the miner for $6.7 billion. Rio Tinto’s U.S.-listing slipped 1.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms dropped for a second day, tracking a slide in domestic stocks as investors continued to question if China would announce new stimulus measures.

Alibaba Group fell 3%, PDD Holdings lost 3.6% and JD.Com dropped 4.2%

Investors were also watching for the impact of Category 5 Hurricane Milton as well as the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)