Profit Taking May Contribute To Initial Pullback On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Following the upward move seen over the past several sessions, stocks may give back ground in early trading on Wednesday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a lower open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures down by 0.4 percent.

Profit taking may contribute to initial weakness on Wall Street following the recent strength, which has lifted the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to new record highs.

The downward momentum for stocks also comes amid a rebound by treasury yields, as the yield on the benchmark ten-year note surges back to its highest levels since 2002.

Treasury yields are moving back to the upside along with the price of crude oil, which is bouncing off its lowest level in a month.

The rebound by the price of crude oil comes amid fears Iran is once again stepping up attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said there had been nine attacks so far this month, half the number it reported for all of September in the waterway and Persian Gulf combined.

In a statement on the social media platform X, Yemen's Houthi group claimed that it carried out a series of drone and ballistic missile attacks targeting airports and military installations in Saudi Arabia.

Overall trading activity may be somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting later this afternoon.

The minutes may shed additional light on Fed officials' thinking ahead of the central bank's next interest rate decision later this month.

Ahead of the release of the minutes, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 78.4 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged and just a 21.6 percent chance of another quarter point rate hike.

After showing a notable move the upside early in the session, stocks gave back some ground over the course of the trading day on Tuesday but continued to turn in a strong performance. The major averages extended a recent upward trend, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs.

The major averages ended the day firmly in positive territory but well off their highs of the session. The S&P 500 climbed 44.98 points or 0.6 percent to 7,818.93, the Nasdaq rose 122.48 points or 0.5 percent to 27,599.79 and the Dow increased 253.38 points or 0.5 percent to 51,521.28.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 0.6 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the downside on the day, While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 1.1 percent and the German DAX Index is down by 1.2 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are climbing $0.63 to $90.07 a barrel after inching up $0.01 to $89.44 a barrel on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an ounce of gold is trading at $4,102.80, down $84.30 compared to the previous session's close of $4,187.10. On Tuesday, gold rose $30.30.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 158.18 yen compared to the 158.10 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Tuesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1169 compared to yesterday's $1.1258.