FOMC minutes, consumer sentiment, Deere earnings: 3 things to watch

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- Stocks ended higher on Tuesday as investors looked forward to tomorrow's release of the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes.

While the report will be from the last meeting, investors are eager to see if there are any clues as to the Fed's thinking heading into the last meeting of the year next month. The market is expecting another interest rate increase. But public comments by a few Fed officials in recent days indicate they might be leaning toward a smaller amount. The Fed raised rates four consecutive times by 0.75 percentage points each, and now it could raise by only a half-point in December.

That would be good news to investors, who have worried in recent weeks that the Fed could overstep and tip the economy into a recession.

Retail earnings have mostly held up heading into the crucial holiday shopping season, with several retailers reporting strong trends.

The stock market will pause on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and restart on Friday, but only for an abbreviated session.

Here are three things that could affect  markets tomorrow:

1. FOMC minutes

The Federal Open Market Committee will release the minutes of its last meeting at 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT). Analysts will be watching closely for any signs the policy makers are changing their view on inflation and how well their actions to now have brought inflation down.

2. Michigan sentiment

The Michigan consumer sentiment reading for November will come out at 10:00 ET. Analysts are expecting a reading of 55, which would be up from 54.7 the prior reading.

3. Deere earnings

Deere&Company (NYSE:DE), the agricultural and construction equipment maker, is expected to report earnings per share of $7.12 on revenue of $13.5 billion.