Shares were weaker overnight in both Europe and Asia, while the dollar was able to hold its ground ahead of an announcement expected from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's two-day meeting, which ends today.
Stock index futures are indicating a lower open for Wall Street.
The market consensus is that the Fed will begin to raise its interest rate in September at the earliest, although some analysts are still speculating on whether a June rate hike is still on the cards. The announcement is due at 2 p.m. ET.
Foreign investors are, as usual, focused on Greece. The country is set to present a draft reform bill to the European Union and International Monetary Fund representatives today, in order to renew talks over the extension of its bailout.
These events will be monitored carefully as the world tries to gauge Greece's level of commitment and seriousness in negotiating a fix to its potential debt default pickle.
Notable earnings reports for today include: Anthem (ANTM), KBR (KBR), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Time Warner (TWX), Trifecta's International Paper (IP) and MasterCard (MA), troubled retailer Lumber Liquidators (LL), Waste Management (WM), Norfolk Southern (NSC), Yelp (YELP), Baidu (BIDU), Terex (TEX) and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI).
Besides the big FOMC rate decision, domestic economic news include the first quarter GDP report at 8:30 a.m., with estimates looking for 1% quarter-over-quarter growth; the March pending home sales report at 10 a.m., with consensus looking for 1% growth, (prior 3.1%); and at 10:30 a.m., we'll get the Energy Information Administration's weekly crude inventories report.
With lots of earnings reports on tap and the FOMC decision, today will surely prove to be volatile.
Happy trading!
