US Stocks: Futures decline on cautious Fed tone on inflation US stock index futures edged lower on Monday as hawkish comments from a US Federal Reserve official tempered hopes of a less aggressive pace of monetary policy tightening. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Sunday that markets should now pay attention to the “endpoint” of rate increases, not the pace of each move, and the endpoint is likely “a ways off”. Also read: Govt makes a strong pitch for release of GM mustard “The message is coming loud and clear from the Fed, investors should hold their horses when it comes to expectations of looser monetary policy,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Traders now expect the Fed to hike interest rates in December by a half point, and expect terminal rate in the range of 4.75%-5.0% in May 2023. At 5:30 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 82 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 14 points, or 0.35%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 71.5 points, or 0.60%. Growth stocks gave back some gains from last week, with Apple Inc, Intel Corp and Amazon.com down about 1% each in premarket trading. Tesla Inc dropped about 2% as Chief Executive Elon Musk said “I have too much work on my plate” when asked about his recent acquisition of Twitter and his leadership of the electric-vehicle maker. Also read: WPI inflation eases to 19-month low of 8.39 per cent in October In the week ahead, investors will closely monitor a slew of economic data, including retail sales numbers on Wednesday. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden met on Monday for long-awaited talks that come as relations between their countries are at their lowest in decades, marred by disagreements over a host of issues from Taiwan to trade.
The move had also prompted the country’s largest organised retailer Reliance Retail to step into the value retail segment with Yousta, which was announced on Thursday. Like Intune, Yousta began its operations in Hyderabad, with plans to expand across the country. Intune has three stores – two in Hyderabad and one in Dombivli, near Mumbai, with plans to add another three more outlets in the coming months.
Nair had admitted on a recent earnings call that the apparel segment in general was witnessing moderation and that the value retail foray by Shoppers Stop could help the company tap into the growing trend for affordable fashion and lifestyle products, aiding sales growth.
That was an important statement for Shoppers Stop, which reported a nearly 37% year-on-year drop in net profit to Rs 14.5 crore in the June quarter of FY24, even as revenue grew only 4.8% versus the previous year to nearly Rs 994 crore.
On a yearly basis, the company had last reported a net profit of nearly Rs 114 crore in FY23 after three consecutive years of loss between FY20 and FY22 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. FY23 topline also jumped nearly 60% year-on-year to Rs 4,022 crore, the highest in six years, its results showed.