Stock market today: Live updates

Stock futures flickered near the flat line on Tuesday, as investors held out hope that the Federal Reserve is done raising benchmark interest rates.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked higher by 16 points, or 0.04%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.03% and 0.04%.

In after-hours action, shares of Las Vegas Sands slipped more than 3% after the company announced that Miriam Adelson – the casino operator’s largest shareholder – would sell $2 billion in shares. NetApp jumped 11% after issuing upbeat earnings guidance and beating analysts’ expectations in the latest quarter.

During regular trading, the major averages notched modest gains. The S&P 500 advanced 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite added about 0.3%. The Dow inched higher by 0.2%.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Tuesday that current monetary policy appears to be sufficiently restrictive to cool inflation back down to the central bank’s 2% target. The comments helped fuel investor optimism and buoyed stocks.

“Markets are already far ahead of where Waller shifted the Fed to,” Vital Knowledge founder and president Adam Crisafulli said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday.

“Now it’s just a question: Is the Fed going to start pushing back aggressively again about rate cuts that are expected for next year, and I think there’s a lot of important economic data we’ll get between now and the next meeting,” he added. “I think investors are just waiting to see clarity on that front.”

Indeed, fed funds futures pricing suggests a chance that the central bank could cut rates as early as next spring, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

On Wednesday, traders will have an eye out for second preliminary gross domestic product data for the third quarter, as well as the wholesale inventories report for October. On the earnings front, Hormel Foods and Dollar Tree are expected to issue quarterly results before the opening bell. Salesforce will post earnings after the close.