NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street, but with one day left in October major indexes are still headed for big gains for the month. Investors this week will be watching for another extra-large interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve, part of the central bank鈥檚 fight against inflation, and the government鈥檚 monthly report on the job market. Starbucks is among the companies reporting earnings this week. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% early Monday, but is still on track for its biggest monthly gain since July. The Dow is headed for its biggest monthly gain since at least 1987.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP鈥檚 earlier story follows below.
Wall Street futures pointed modestly lower and world stock markets were mixed on Monday ahead of what is expected to be a Federal Reserve decision this week to raise interest rates again.
Futures for the Dow Jones industrials and futures for the S&P 500 each slipped 0.3%.
The Fed is widely expected at this week鈥檚 meeting to announce another rate hike of 0.75 percentage points, three times its usual margin. Investors are looking for signs officials are satisfied that earlier increases imposed to cool inflation that is near a four-decade high are working and future increases can be smaller.
Investors worry that rate hikes by the Fed and other central banks to cool inflation might tip the global economy into recession. The U.S. central bank has raised its benchmark lending rate to a range of 3% to 3.25% from close to zero in March.
鈥淭he tone from Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be important鈥� after this week鈥檚 meeting, said Yeap Jun Rong of IG in a report. Investors are looking for 鈥渋ncreased concerns on economic conditions鈥� instead of the 鈥渃urrent head-on resolve to tame inflation.鈥�
Core inflation, which removes volatile food and energy prices to show the underlying trend, accelerated to 5.1% from August鈥檚 4.9%. Powell and other Fed officials have said they are ready to keep interest rates elevated until they are sure inflation is extinguished.
The government reported last week that the U.S. economy in the third quarter after contracting in the first half of 2022.
Stronger exports and consumer spending, backed by a healthy job market, helped the economy grow at a better-than-expected 2.6% annual rate from July through September, according to the Commerce Department.
Wall Street ended last week higher after Apple and other big companies reported strong profits and a closely watched measure of inflation accelerated in September. Among the companies reporting earnings this week are Pfizer, Uber, CVS Health and Starbucks.
The European Union鈥檚 statistics agency, Eurostat, reported Monday that inflation hit a new record in the 19 countries that use the euro currency, fueled by for natural gas and electricity due to . According to Eurostat, annual inflation reached 10.7% in October.
Economic growth also slowed ahead of what economists fear is a looming recession, largely as a result of those higher prices sapping Europeans鈥� ability to spend.
In European trading at midday, Germany's DAX gained 0.3%, Britain's FTSE 100 picked up 0.2% and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2%.
In Asian trading, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo gained 1.8% to 27,587.46, as the government reported that retail sales rose in September, though industrial production weakened.
The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.8% to 2,893.48 after showed a weakening in production and demand. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.2% to 14,687.02.
The Kospi in Seoul added 1.1% to 2,293.61 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 gained 1.2% to 6,863.50.
In energy markets Monday, benchmark U.S. crude lost $1.54 to $86.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.18 to $87.90 on Friday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, retreated $1.46 to $92.31 per barrel in London. It declined $1.19 on Friday to $95.77.
The dollar rose to 148.64 yen from Friday's 147.53 yen. The euro edged down to 99.29 cents from 99.55 cents.
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McDonald reported from Beijing; Ott reported from Washington.
Joe Mcdonald And Matt Ott, The Associated Press
