LONDON (ShareCast) - US stock futures were little changed ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its last policy meeting, this evening.

Investors are showing caution before the Federal Open Market Committee’s minutes which will provide more details behind the central bank’s decision last month to keep its monetary stimulus unchanged.

At its latest meeting, the Fed said it would maintain its monthly $85bn bond buying programme and keep interest rates near zero until it sees a sustainable economic recovery and improvement in the labour market.

Fed policy makers are expected to scaling back purchases to $70bn a month at their March 18th-19th meeting, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Ahead of the minutes, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that the central bank will probably keep its interest rates unchanged long after ending quantitative easing, possibly even once the unemployment rate falls below the target 6.5%.

In today’s agenda, the market will look to the release of a batch of US data to gauge the health of the economy including reports on retail sales, homes sales, manufacturing inventories and mortgage applications.

Retail sales, in particular, are "extremely important for the US economy and therefore have the potential to create big moves in the markets", according to Craig Erlam, Market Analyst at Alpari UK.

Retail sales rose 0.4% in October, compared to a drop of 0.1% a month earlier and consensus for a 0.1% increase.

The consumer price index fell 0.1% over the month in October, down from the previous month's 0.2% jump. Consensus was flat.

Existing home sales, on the other hand, are tipped to have fallen 2.9% last month, exceeding September’s 1.9% decline.

In earnings, shares in Lowe’s slumped after the retail home improvement firm reported third quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates.

Yahoo rallied following news the internet company is returning more cash to shareholders.

Deere advanced as the maker of agricultural equipment said fourth quarter profit beat analysts’ forecasts.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $0.064 to $93.950 per barrel, according to ICE data.

US 10-year government yields rose two basis points to 2.73%.

RD

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