Wall Street ticks modestly higher ahead of Wednesday's interest rate decision by Federal Reserve

BANGKOK: Wall Street ticked modestly higher early on Monday ahead of a highly anticipated interest rate decision later this week by the Federal Reserve.

Futures for the S&P 500 edged up 0.2 per cent before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were unchanged. Nasdaq futures were up 0.3 per cent.

Among the biggest stock movers in premarket were a trio of companies that are moving up to trade on the S&P 500, including Carvana, CRH and Comfort Systems USA. Auto retailer Carvana climbed nearly 9 per cent, building materials company CRH jumped 7 per cent, and construction contractor Comfort Systems USA rose 1.4 per cent.

Berkshire Hathaway lost less than 1 per cent after the Warren Buffett-led conglomerate announced that investment manager and Geico CEO Todd Combs is leaving the company and heading to JPMorgan Chase. Buffett previously announced that he will hand over the CEO role at Berkshire Hathaway to Greg Abel next year, though he will remain as chairman.

Netflix rose less than 1 per cent after President Donald Trump said Sunday that the video streamer's deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. Trump said he will be involved in the government's decision to approve or block the USD 72 billion deal, which would put two of the world's biggest streaming services under the same ownership.

Warner Bros. Discovery shares were off 0.7 per cent before the bell.

This week, attention will focus on what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, with the widespread expectation that it will cut its benchmark rate on Wednesday in hopes of shoring up the slowing US job market. If it does, it will be the US central bank's third cut of the year.

Lower interest rates boost prices for investments and help the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which stubbornly remains above the Fed's 2 per cent target.

Economic reports last week did little to change expectations for a coming cut. One said that an underlying measure of inflation that the Fed prefers to use was at 2.8 per cent in September, exactly as economists expected.

A separate report said US consumers appear to be downgrading their expectations for inflation coming in the near future. They're now forecasting 4.1 per cent inflation for the year ahead, down from their forecast of 4.5 per cent last month, according to the University of Michigan.

That's the lowest such forecast since January, which is important because heightened expectations for inflation can create a vicious cycle that only worsens inflation.

At midday in Europe, Germany's DAX rose 0.2 per cent, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2 per cent. Britain's FTSE 100 was unchanged.

In Asia, flaring Japan-China tensions weighed on sentiment after Chinese military aircraft locked radar on Japanese fighter jets during the weekend. The episode occurred weeks into a downturn in relations after a remark about the defence of Taiwan by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi angered Beijing.

Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan had formally protested the incident, calling it “an extremely regrettable” act and “a dangerous” one that “exceeded the scope necessary for safe aircraft operations.”

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.2 per cent to 50,581.94 after the government reported revised government data showing that Japan's economy contracted at an annual pace of 2.3 per cent in the July-September period, not the 1.8 per cent annual rate earlier reported. Japanese exports suffered from the impact of US President Donald Trump's tariffs, and public investments slipped.

Chinese markets were mixed, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 1.2 per cent to 25,765.36, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.5 per cent to 3,924.08.

China reported its trade surplus has exceeded USD 1 trillion so far in 2025, as exports climbed 5.9 per cent in November from a year earlier. Exports to the US sank 29 per cent year-on-year, while shipments to other destinations helped offset that decline.

Chinese leaders convened a major annual economic policy planning conference to sketch out details for the coming year and beyond.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi added 1.3 per cent to 4,154.85, while Taiwan's benchmark jumped 1.2 per cent.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 per cent to 8,624.40.

In energy trading early Monday, the US benchmark crude oil lost 82 cents to USD 59.26 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave back 83 cents to USD 62.92 per barrel.