Manufacturing and services PMI, durable goods orders, Bullard: 3 things to watch

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- Stocks lost steam in the afternoon on Thursday, erasing an earlier 400-point Dow rally as investors interpreted the Federal Reserve’s signals that they might be close to ending their interest rate hikes.

The market was struggling to regain ground after a sharp sell-off on Wednesday after the Fed raised rates by the expected quarter of a percentage point.

The economic forecasts by the Fed policymakers have the terminal rate rising to 5.1%, which is lower than recent expectations and the same as their forecast in December. Based on the current benchmark range, that forecast would imply one more rate hike this year.

The Fed has other things to consider, including the still-tight labor market. New jobless claims fell last week and were lower than expected. Next week will come the next big reading on inflation, but before that investors will get the latest reading on manufacturing and services.

Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:

1. Manufacturing and services

The readings on manufacturing PMI for March come out at 9:45 ET (13:45 GMT), and analysts expect a reading of 47, which would be down from the 47.4 reported for the prior month. Services PMI comes out at the same time. Analysts are expecting a reading of 50.5, which would be a tick lower than the 50.6 reported earlier.

2. Durable goods

Data on durable goods orders comes out at 8:30 ET. Analysts expect a rise of 0.6% versus a contraction of 4.5% the prior month.

3. Bullard speaks

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is scheduled to speak at 9:30 ET at a meeting of Greater St. Louis Inc.

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