S&P, Nasdaq, Dow futures dip as risk aversion continues ahead of Fed

Stock index futures were slightly lower Wednesday as the market remains cautious ahead of a very significant week.

S&P futures (SPX) -0.2%, Nasdaq 100 futures (NDX:IND) -0.2% and Dow futures (INDU) -0.1% were down slightly.

“There hasn’t been a great deal of newsflow coming through, with markets still in something of a holding pattern ahead of next week’s bumper calendar of events, which includes the US CPI print as well as the Fed and ECB decisions,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid wrote.

The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) was up 2 basis points to 3.53% and the 2-year yield (US2Y) fell 1 basis points to 4.35%.

In the previous session, the 2s10s curve “closed at its most inverted of this cycle yet, after falling -2.1bps on the day to -84.1bps, something we haven’t seen in over four decades,” Reid noted.

The economic calendar is fairly light. Updated measures of Q3 nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs arrive before the bell. Economists expect productivity to be revised up to a rise of 0.6%, with unit labor costs revised down to a rise of 3.1%.

“This is not really final as GDP will be revised in the future, changing both these numbers,” UBS’ Paul Donovan said. “For now, the expectation is for lower unit labor cost growth, underscoring how little of the current inflation is labor related (and thus the role of profit margins in pushing prices higher).”

Among active stocks, MongoDB is rallying following earnings.