U.S. stock futures dropped on Thursday after Wednesday’s advances. Futures of major benchmark indices were lower.
The Federal Reserve delivered a 25 basis points cut on Wednesday, bringing the rates down to 3.5%–3.75%, a third consecutive reduction that met expectations but exposed a widening policy divide within the central bank.
Additionally, the central bank said that it will implement quantitative easing by resuming the purchase of shorter-maturity Treasury bills, approximately $40 billion per month.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.14% and the two-year bond was at 3.53%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing an 80.1% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were lower in premarket on Thursday. The SPY was down 0.52% at $683.99, while the QQQ declined 0.72% to $623.08, according to Benzinga Pro data.
