Wall Street futures higher; data and earnings in focus

US equities ended mixed on Wednesday as chances for an interest rate hike in June increased following the Federal Open Market Committee press conference.
As it was widely anticipated, monetary authorities opted to leave interest rates in a range between 0.75 percent and 1.00 percent. The Federal Reserve finished its two-day policy meeting with an optimistic tone, saying it believes the American economy is on the right path.
“The Committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant gradual increases in the federal funds rate; the federal funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are expected to prevail in the longer run. However, the actual path of the federal funds rate will depend on the economic outlook as informed by incoming data.”
The regulator also pointed out that the recent slump of the gross domestic product growth rate for the first-quarter was “transitory” and that it was not concerning policymakers at the time. No comments were made regarding plans to reduce Fed’s massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +8.01 / +0.04% / 20957.90
• Standard & Poor’s 500: -3.04 / -0.13% / 2388.13
• Nasdaq Composite: -22.82 / -0.37% / 6072.55

In economic news, ADP nonfarm employment change outperformed expectations, reporting a 177,000 jobs build in April, compared to 175,000 initially estimated.
Markit also released its composite and services PMIs, which came in at 53.2 and 53.1 respectively, both above expected values. In a separate report, the Institute of Supply Management said non-manufacturing PMI reached 57.5, up from a projected 55.8 level.
Earnings remained in focus as major companies continued to present first quarter results. Tesla took investors by surprise falling really short in earnings per share at a $1.33 loss against expectations for a $0.81 decline. However, revenue came in better-than-expected at $2.7 billion.
Facebook was another big name publishing first-quarter results. The social media company reported a revenue of $8.03 billion and a $1.04 EPS compared to a projected $0.87 per share.
Entertainment giant Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros., HBO and Turner TV networks exceeded Wall Street expectations with $1.66 per share against $1.49 expected. Revenue added 6 percent to $7.7 billion in the first three months of 2017.
On the data front today, investors will be looking at initial jobless claims, trade balance and unit labor costs as of 12:30 GMT. Factory orders for March will be out at 14:00 GMT.
On the earnings front, we are expecting companies such as Ambev, MSCI, Madison Square Garden, Marriot Vacations Worldwide, Regis, Viacom, HSBC Holdings, Repsol, Royal Dutch Shell, Siemens, Motorola, Paramount Group, Shake Shack, among many others.