Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday, continuing the post-election rally, as the Federal Reserve (Fed) began its two-day meeting on monetary policy.
The blue-chip Dow futures rose 64 points, or 0.32%, by 7:00AM ET (12:00GMT), the S&P 500 futures gained 6 points, or 0.27%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 15 points, or 0.31%.
Investors were preparing for the Fed’s policy decision out on Wednesday. According to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool, markets had fully priced in a rate hike by 25 basis points to 0.50%-0.75% in what would be its first increase this year and only the second since the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
With the interest rate hike considered by markets to be a done deal, market participants were likely to focus on the dot-plot that outlines policymakers’ expectations for the future path of interest rates as well as any remarks on monetary policy from Fed chair Janet Yellen in the press conference following the announcement and economic projections.
As the Fed meeting loomed, the dollar firmed up on Tuesday with the U.S. dollar index at 101.13 by 7:01AM ET (12:01GMT), recovering from its weakest day in a week.
Gold in the meantime slipped lower, trading at $1,160.55 a troy ounce by 7:02AM ET (12:02GMT), not far from the lows of $1,153.00 set on Monday, the weakest since February 4.
On a light day for the economic calendar, investors could focus on import and export prices for November out at 8:30AM ET (13:30GMT).
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher on Tuesday as the International Energy Agency indicated in its monthly report that global crude inventories could start to draw in the first half of 2017 if OPEC and non-OPEC producers follow through on their agreement to cut output.
The IEA forecast global demand to increase at a quicker-than-anticipated pace.
U.S. crude futures rose 0.87% to $53.29 by 7:03AM ET (12:03GMT), while Brent oil traded up 1.04% to $56.27.