Investing.com – U.S. futures rose slightly on Wednesday, as investors await an interest rate announcement from the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 futures rose 6 points or 0.23% to 2,928.0 as of 6:50 AM ET (10:50 GMT) while Dow futures gained 52 points, or 0.20%, to 26,572.0. Meanwhile, the tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 23 points, or 0.30%, to 7,618.25.
The Fed is expected to increase interest rates for the third time this year when it concludes its two-day policy meeting in Washington.
With a rate hike all but locked in, investors will closely watch the so-called dot-plot graph for clues of a possible fourth interest rate increase in December.
A statement will be released at 2:00 PM ET, with a press conference from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell following at 2:30 PM ET.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched up 0.36% in premarket trading, despite semiconductor Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) accusing the tech giant of stealing chip secrets and giving them to Intel (NASDAQ:INTC).
Meanwhile Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gained 0.34% while Chinese e-commerce site Jd.Com Inc Adr (NASDAQ:JD)rose 0.69% and AMD was up 0.61%.
Elsewhere Nike (NYSE:NKE) slumped 2.88% after disappointing sales growth numbers.
In economic news, new home sales data comes out at 9:00 AM ET (13:00 GMT).
In Europe stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell 19 points or 0.16% while in France the CAC 40 was up 14 points or 0.27% and in London the FTSE 100 increased 12 points or 0.17%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 7 points or 0.23% while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up 13 points or 0.14%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.21% to $1,202.60 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.24% to $72.11 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.11% to 93.83.