By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- Stocks slipped to close out the month of October, which was otherwise a strong one for big companies despite mixed earnings and jitters about the Federal Reserve's next move.
The Dow was on track to end the month with the best gain in decades.
Investors are anticipating another 0.75 percentage point increase in interest rates when the Fed announces its decision on Wednesday, but they will be more focused on what Chair Jerome Powell says and signals during his press conference that afternoon. The hope is that the Fed will start to ease off the pace of rate increases as it sees evidence that parts of the market are cooling off. There have been some fears that the Fed would overshoot its mark as it works to tame inflation.
The jobs report for October on Friday could help strengthen the case for an easing back or muddy the waters by indicating a continued tightness in the labor market.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. JOLTs job openings
The JOLTs job openings report is due out at 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT). Analysts are expecting it to read 10 million openings in September, down slightly from 10.053 million the prior month.
2. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) earnings
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is expected to report earnings of $1.44 a share on revenue of $21.3 billion, and analysts will be listening to what it says about sales of Covid drugs and vaccines.
3. BP (NYSE:BP) earnings
After record-smashing profit from rivals, oil giant BP is expected to report profit of $2.05 a share on revenue of $66.3 billion.