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Wix.com ( WIX ) rises after fourth-quarter profit beats estimates
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Payments processor Shift4 to buy Global Blue ( GB ) in $2.5-bln
deal
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Futures down: Dow 0.25%, S&P 500 0.17%, Nasdaq 0.15%
(Updates with results from Wix.com ( WIX ), Shift4)
By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta
Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slipped on
Wednesday as investors examined President Donald Trump's latest
pronouncements on trade restrictions and awaited minutes of the
Federal Reserve's January meeting, expected to be released later
in the day.
The U.S. president said on Tuesday that he intends to impose
auto tariffs "in the neighborhood of 25%", along with similar
duties on semiconductor and pharmaceuticals imports.
Minutes of the U.S. central bank's January policy meeting -
where voting members elected to let interest rates stand and Fed
Chair Jerome Powell said there would be no rush to cut them
again until inflation and jobs data made it appropriate - are
scheduled to be released at 2 p.m. ET.
Investors will look for hints on the Fed's rate path in the
minutes in light of last week's mixed consumer and producer
prices data, coupled with a sharp drop in retail sales, which
had sent Treasury yields lower.
"Keep an eye out for further discussions on the impact of
Trump's policies and possible insights into how members have
changed their views on the timing of further rate cuts, if any,
compared to the December forecasts," Karl Steiner, head of
analysis at SEB, said in a note.
Traders currently see at least one 25-basis-point rate cut
and a 44% chance of an additional lowering by December,
according to LSEG data.
Since his inauguration in January, Trump has imposed a 10%
tariff on all imports from China, on top of existing levies. He
also announced and delayed for a month 25% tariffs on goods from
Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.
The S&P 500 eked out an all-time closing high in the
last session, lifting tech heavyweights Microsoft ( MSFT ) and
Nvidia ( NVDA ).
At 06:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 113 points,
or 0.25%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 10.75 points, or
0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 32.5 points, or
0.15%.
Retail giant Walmart's ( WMT ) results, a bellwether for how
the American consumer is faring, are due later this week.
Arista Networks ( ANET ) dropped 4.6% despite the cloud
computing provider forecasting first-quarter revenue above Wall
Street estimates.
Bumble slid 17.8% after the dating app operator
forecast first-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates.
Specialty chemicals company Celanese lost 13.1% after
reporting a quarterly loss.
Payments processor Shift4 fell 9.9% after its
fourth-quarter results and news that the company has agreed to
buy Global Blue ( GB ) in a deal valued at $2.5 billion. Shares
of Global Blue ( GB ) rose 19.1%.
Website builder Wix.com ( WIX ) advanced 5.9% after
beating
fourth-quarter net profit expectations.