Dados para hoje nos states: Fed às 19:15

[notiCIas]

Buying while waiting

Latest forecasts for storm to miss Houston leads oil lower, stock futures up ahead of Fed meeting.

September 20, 2005: 6:15 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Federal Reserve and oil prices could cause even more volatility in stocks than normal Tuesday, as investors carefully watch the most unpredictable Fed meeting in recent memory and a new hurricane threat to oil facilities along the U.S. Gulf coast.

U.S. stock futures were up in early trading, indicating a higher opening for stocks, lifted by a sharp sell-off in oil prices that followed Monday's $4 a barrel spike in oil prices Monday.

The latest forecast early Tuesday is for Tropical Storm Rita to turn south and miss the Houston area where many refineries are located. But the storm, which is expected to move through the Florida Keys Tuesday and then strengthen to hurricane status, is still several days from landfall along the Gulf coast.


The October light crude futures contract for NYMEX lost 81 cents to $66.58 a barrel in electronic trading, while the November contract for Brent crude fell 81 cents to $64.80.

At 2:15 p.m. ET Tuesday the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on short-term interest rates. Economists are again looking for a quarter-percentage point hike in the Fed Funds rate, raising the benchmark to 3.75 percent.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit in late August there had been some expectation that the Fed might leave rates unchanged at this meeting for the first time since May 2004. Investors will be watching the Fed statement for clues of a possible pause in future meetings.

The earlier agreement by North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program helped lift Asian stocks, but late Tuesday the North Koreans made a new demand that could unravel the day-old agreement. Major European markets were higher in early trading.

Treasury prices were little changed, leaving the yield on the 10-year note at 4.24 percent. The dollar lost ground against the euro and yen.