Investing.com -- U.S. stock index futures rose Wednesday with focus turning to an upcoming address by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for more cues on interest rates.
At 05:40 ET (10:40 GMT), Dow Jones Futures rose 195 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures gained 13 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 115 points, or 0.6%.
The Wall Street indexes traded in tight ranges Tuesday, starting the new month on a more subdued note after the sharp gains at the start of last month after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, with investors positioning for more expansionary policies and tax breaks under Trump.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1%, while the NASDAQ Composite gained 0.4%, both to record closing highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, falling 0.2%.
Powell address awaited for more rate cues
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak later Wednesday, potentially offering up more cues on the central bank’s plans for interest rates.
His address comes just weeks before the Fed’s final meeting for 2024, where the central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points.
But the long term outlook for rates has turned uncertain, especially amid recent signs of inflation remaining above target. The prospect of protectionist trade policies under President-elect Donald Trump, which could entail more import tariffs, also sparked concerns over inflation in the long term.
Trump recently threatened higher tariffs against a slew of countries, including the BRICs bloc, Canada, and Mexico.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) analysts said in a recent note they expect tariffs to delay inflation from falling to the Fed’s 2% target.
Beyond Powell’s address, focus this week is also on nonfarm payrolls data for November, due on Friday. Investors are positioning for a potentially strong reading, amid signs of sustained strength in the labor market.
Salesforce soars after Q3
There are more quarterly earnings to digest Wednesday, from the likes of Foot Locker (NYSE:FL), Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR) and Chewy (NYSE:CHWY), while Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is seen surging after strong third-quarter numbers.
Salesforce stock soared over 10% in premarket trading, after the cloud-based software company beat third-quarter revenue expectations and raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast, helped by robust spending on its enterprise cloud portfolio.
Crude gains ahead of OPEC+ meeting
Crude prices rose Wednesday, boosted by heightened geopolitical tensions as well as the prospect of OPEC+ extending supply cuts against weaker demand.
By 05:40 ET, the US crude futures (WTI) climbed 0.1% to $69.98 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.1% to $73.66 a barrel.
Concerns over the brittle state of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, South Korea's curtailed declaration of martial law as well as prolonged fighting in Syria and Ukraine have all lent support to oil prices.
Both contracts surged over 2% on Tuesday.
Some momentum was stalled during the previous session by industry data showing an unexpected increase in US oil inventories, but eyes are turning to a meeting of major producers on Thursday.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, postponed Sunday’s meeting to discuss production levels until Thursday, providing more time for delegates to agree to a further delay in plans to increase production.
OPEC+ has been looking to gradually phase out supply cuts through next year, but the group has become concerned that weak demand and an increase in supply in 2025 will see prices slump sharply.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)