Before the bell: futures flat with PCE due at 8:30; Boeing rises 2% on a Navy fighter contract

U.S. stock futures were close to flat early Wednesday, the last trading day of September and of the third quarter. December S&P 500 e-mini futures were at 7,728.75 at 7:06 a.m., down 0.04% from Tuesday's settlement, with Nasdaq-100 futures down 0.14% and Russell 2000 futures down 0.23%, on Yahoo Finance quotes. CNBC also described futures as little changed. Live levels: markets board.

Yields and the Fed

Tuesday's official Treasury closes were 5.26% for the 10-year, 4.89% for the 2-year and 5.59% for the 30-year, on Treasury data. CNBC said the 10-year touched a 2007 high near 5.3% during the session and the 30-year reached levels last seen in June 2002; yields eased slightly this morning. New York Fed President John Williams said late Tuesday there was "no need for urgency" ahead of the October meeting, and CME FedWatch pricing for a quarter-point hike fell to 49% from 71% on Monday, CNBC reported. Chart: 10-year T-note.

What borrowers are already paying

The Mortgage Bankers Association's 30-year contract rate rose to 7.30% from 7.12% last week, and total applications fell 6%, with refinancing down 9%, CNBC reported. On a $400,000 loan, that one week adds about $49 a month to principal and interest ($2,742 against $2,694, our calculation). Adjustable-rate loans rose to 10.3% of applications, the highest share since October 2025, as buyers reach for rates about 0.8 point lower.

On the calendar

The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes August personal income and outlays, which includes the PCE price index, and the third estimate of second-quarter GDP, both at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect PCE prices up 0.3% on the month and 3.7% on the year, CNBC said. ADP private payrolls are forecast at 70,000 after 38,000, and final GDP at 1.5% against 2.1% previously, on our economic calendar. Micron reports fiscal fourth-quarter results after the close (our preview); its shares were $1,064.64 premarket, flat.

Movers

• Boeing: $191.85, up 2.2%, on Nasdaq premarket quotes, after winning the Navy's F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter contract, worth more than $20 billion, CNBC reported. Losing bidder Northrop Grumman was down 3.8% at $485.60.
• Cal-Maine Foods: $64.20, down 6.4%. Its first-quarter release showed sales down 41.5% to $539.6 million and a loss of $1.26 a share against a $4.12 profit a year ago. The number underneath: its average price for conventional eggs fell 59.3% while volume barely moved. That is the same drop in egg costs showing up on the supply bills of breakfast diners and bakeries.
• FactSet: $250.00, down 3.8%, even though fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $4.52 rose 11.6%. Its release guided fiscal 2027 organic subscription growth to 5.0% to 6.5%, below the 7.0% it just posted.
• Hormel Foods: $20.12, up 1.4%, after agreeing to buy Brakebush Brothers, a Wisconsin value-added chicken supplier to foodservice, for about $1.055 billion. Brakebush had about $1.2 billion of sales over the last 12 months.
• Crypto: Bitcoin was $83,828 on Coinbase, down 0.6% from its 24-hour open, and Ether $2,689, down 1.5%.

605,380 independent restaurants are listed on CheckThisBiz, a directory of 7,704,724 independent US businesses, including 79,108 in CA, 54,058 in TX, 51,387 in NY. Chains and franchises are excluded from that count, so these are the owner-operated businesses that actually apply for funding.

Sources: CNBC, U.S. Treasury, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Cal-Maine Foods, FactSet and Hormel Foods (SEC filings), Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq.com premarket quotes, Coinbase Exchange, Chronicle markets board. Payment figures are our calculations. Premarket prices move quickly and early volume is thin. This is market information, not investment advice.