Stock Market Today: Wall Street Mostly Up on Earnings…

Wall Street was largely flat Tuesday morning as more companies reported quarterly results and the U.S. Federal Reserve prepared to hold another monetary policy meeting and discuss interest rates.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.2% in premarket trading, while tech-heavy Nasdaq futures were up 0.3%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were unchanged.

The Fed’s last meeting will begin on Tuesday and end the next day with an interest rate announcement, expected on Wednesday afternoon.

Virtually no one expects the US central bank to change interest rates this week, but most economists believe the Federal Reserve will begin easing monetary policy at its next meeting in September.

The Fed has raised interest rates 11 times since March 2022 to tame inflation that took root as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession. Fed officials have left their benchmark rate, which is the highest in more than two decades, unchanged for more than a year, a move that could boost earnings for companies and investors.

PayPal and JetBlue reported higher-than-expected second-quarter profit Tuesday, and shares rose. Most industry analysts had forecast JetBlue would report a quarterly loss, and earnings of 8 cents per share pushed shares up more than 3% before the open.

PayPal’s surprisingly high profit was driven by an 8% year-over-year increase in revenue.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck also beat sales and profit targets, but its shares fell 1.8% after it lowered its full-year profit forecast due to acquisition costs. Pfizer shares rose in premarket trading after the company raised its 2024 outlook.

Microsoft, Starbucks and Live Nation will report results for their latest quarters later Tuesday. Facebook-owner Meta Platforms will report on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon on Thursday.

Big Tech stocks have led the S&P 500 to dozens of records this year, in part because of an investor frenzy around artificial intelligence technology, but have lost steam this month amid criticism that they have become too expensive. Investors last week dismissed earnings reports from Tesla and Alphabet as disappointing, raising concerns that other stocks in a group of Big Tech stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” could also fail to impress.

In addition to the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan will also hold monetary policy meetings this week.

Gross domestic product, or the total value of goods and services, rose by 0.3% in the second quarter in the 20 countries that share the euro, according to official data released Tuesday by the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat.

Meanwhile, Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, saw its output fall by 0.1%.

In Europe, the French CAC 40 and German DAX were up 0.4% at midday. The British FTSE 100 fell 0.1%.

In Asian stocks, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index reversed earlier losses to rise 0.2% to end the day at 38,525.95. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.5% to 7,953.20. South Korea’s Kospi shed 1% to 2,738.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 17,002.91, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.4% to 2,879.30.

“Markets may find it difficult to position central bank meetings this week,” Jing Yi Tan of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

In Japan, the government said the unemployment rate was 2.5% in June, down slightly from 2.6% the previous month. It was the first improvement in five months.

In energy trading, U.S. crude lost 52 cents to $75.29 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 53 cents to $78.52.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 154.89 Japanese yen from 154.00 yen. The euro was at $1.0828, up slightly from $1.0826.

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%.