S&P 500; US Indexes Fundamental Daily Forecast – Supported by Higher Oil After Bullish EIA Report

U.S. stocks indexes are trading flat shortly after the opening as investors await the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s April meeting.

The blue chip Dow Jones industrial Average is trading at 20969.57, up $31.66 or +0.15%. The benchmark S&P 500 Index is at 2400.48, up 2.06 or +0.09% and the tech-based NASDAQ Composite is trading 6146.99, up 8.28 or +0.13%.

Investors will be looking through the minutes, hoping to find information on the timing and the number of Fed rate hikes in 2017. Currently, the market puts about a 79 percent chance on the Fed raising rates in June.

Earlier in the session, the Home Price Index came in up 0.6%, better than the 0.5% estimate. However, Existing Home Sales missed the 5.65 million unit estimate by coming in at 5.57 million units.

Crude oil Inventories were bullish with a drawdown of 4.4 million barrels according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration versus a drawdown estimate of 2.4 million barrels. This should help under pin energy stocks and the S&P 500 Energy Sector.

Later today, investors will hear from Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari. In the meantime, investors will be watching for any news regarding President Trump as he completes his first foreign travel assignment. On Wednesday, Trump visits with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Earnings were in focus early in the session with Lowe’s reporting weaker-than-expected quarterly results. Shares of the company were down about 3.3 percent.

The strong recovery in the stock market since last week’s sell-off has convinced some investors that the markets are rallying without the help from the “Trump Trade”. In other words, driving the market at this time is the economic outlook. Earlier in the year, the markets were supported heavily by expectations that the Trump Administration would implement aggressive health and tax reform, ease regulations and increase infrastructure spending.

However, given the turbulence in Washington, it looks as if investors have divorced themselves from the situation and are now showing a more upbeat attitude towards the economy and earnings.