Stock market news live updates: Stock futures trade mixed, Microsoft shares drop after earnings - Yahoo Finance

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Stock futures opened mixed Tuesday evening on the heels of a meandering day for the three major indexes, with investors digesting an onslaught of corporate earnings results and looking ahead to a monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve.

Contracts on the S&P 500 ticked higher, after the index ended just short of a record high during the regular trading day on Tuesday. Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) gained in late trading after the company posted first-quarter sales and profit that easily exceeded estimates, fueled by a resurgence in marketing spending among customers. Shares of peer tech giant and Dow component Microsoft (MSFT), however, declined even after earnings topped expectations across virtually all major metrics.

A monetary policy decision from the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday will punctuate what has otherwise been a busy week full of corporate earnings results. Many pundits expect the April FOMC meeting will yield virtually no new developments, with policymakers waiting until more data emerges on the economic recovery to determine the timing for an adjustment to their ultra-accommodative policy.

"We expect no major developments for the Fed’s core policies at the April FOMC meeting. Fedspeak since the March meeting has been consistent in acknowledging improved activity amid accelerating vaccinations, re-opening and fiscal stimulus," Lewis Alexander, U.S. chief economist at Nomura, said in a note Tuesday.

"However, participants have also been clear that they are likely to remain patient in removing accommodation," he added. "As a result, we expect the post-meeting statement to acknowledge better economic activity but do not look for changes to the Fed’s key forward guidance for interest rates and asset purchases. We think April is likely too early for conversations around tapering to accelerate."

But the likely uneventfulness of the April FOMC meeting will belie the significant role the central bank has continued to play in underpinning markets over the course of the pandemic. As a result, even the slightest hints at tweaks to current policies – whether in the form of tapering the central bank's $120 billion per-month asset purchase program or raising rates – have been closely eyed by market participants.

“The main directional driver for equities is the fact that the Fed continues to pump money into the market,” Interactive Brokers' Steve Sosnick told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. "That is what's putting a floor under things and that's what's providing the ammunition so to speak for the market rally that we're seeing."

But in the very near-term, many noted that the economy, at least, remains well positioned to continue on its current, stimulus- and vaccine-fueled trajectory.

"I think right now we're seeing the perfect equation for near-term growth. We see trillions of dollars in stimulus flooding into the economy, creating a stimulus-fueled consumer that's anxious to rush into the markets and businesses that are anxious to open up and welcome those consumer back in with open arms," Lindsey Piegza, Stifel chief economist, told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday. "So what we're seeing is this flurry of demand prompting a flurry of production, and in fact production now is falling short of that surge in demand which is likely to continue to carry growth forward, not only through the first quarter, but much of 2021."

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