By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen trading higher Wednesday, resuming the recent rally as solid earnings after the previous close from social media giant Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) boosted sentiment.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 85 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 Futures traded 12 points, or 0.3%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 45 points, or 0.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed just 9 points lower Tuesday and the S&P 500 ended down 0.1%, both indices snapping a six-day winning streak, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.1%.
This earnings season has been a generally positive one, with data released at the end of last week showing that over 80% of the S&P 500 companies that had reported earnings for the fourth quarter of last year beat expectations (albeit that's an achievement that owes as much to traditionally gloomy expectation management as anything else: the average performance of stocks that have 'beaten expectations' has, however, been weaker than at any time in recent years.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) did better than most late Tuesday, impressing with its quarterly sales and profit while also forecasting a strong start to 2021 as ad spending rebounds. This saw the company’s stock rise over 4% after hours even while warning that it expects user growth to slow to low double digits this year.
The earnings season may be coming to a close, but there are still reports from a number of iconic brands due Wednesday, including Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Uber (NYSE:UBER) and General Motors (NYSE:GM).
Elsewhere, investors continue to monitor the passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill through Congress, while Democrats will begin formally making their case that former President Donald Trump should be convicted for inciting the U.S. Capitol siege after the Senate concluded his impeachment trial could proceed.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered over 43 million of Covid-19 vaccines in the country as of early Tuesday.
On the economic data slate, January consumer prices are due for release, at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), with a monthly rise of 0.3% expected, or a year-over-year gain of 1.5%.
Fed chairman Jerome Powell is also scheduled to speak about the state of the U.S. economy in an address to the Economic Club of New York later Wednesday.
Oil prices pushed higher Wednesday, helped by a further drop in U.S. crude stocks after the American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday an unexpected fall in inventories last week.
Supply data from the Energy Information Administration, due later in the day, will now be studied carefully.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.5% higher at $58.63 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 0.4% to $61.45.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,841.05/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.2125.