By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening largely higher Wednesday, helped by growing confidence that U.S. lawmakers will agree on a coronavirus relief package.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract rose 75 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 Futures traded 6 points, or 0.2%, higher, while Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 9 points, or 0.1%.
The Trump administration reentered the negotiations over a new stimulus deal late Tuesday, when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, via Twitter, proposed a $916 billion package.
The offer included only $40 billion toward unemployment payments, an amount the Democrat leadership considered far too low. But investors have taken the fact the White House has reengaged in talks for the first time since the election as a positive sign that a compromise can be reached before the end of the year.
This comes as Covid-19 cases in the U.S. crossed the 15 million mark on Tuesday, with 213,000 new cases and a new record-high 104,600 people in hospital with the disease.
"We’re in for a very challenging period," top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told a virtual summit on Tuesday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration flagged no new safety or efficacy concerns over the Pfixer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday. This should result in emergency use authorization on Thursday, when the FDA meets. President-elect Joe Biden said his administration will give 100 million shots in his first 100 days.
The U.K. is already injecting the public with this vaccine, but its regulators warned earlier Wednesday that people who have a history of "significant" allergic reactions should not receive the drug.
Earnings are due from computer software company Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) and Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB). However, the corporate focus Wednesday is likely to be on DoorDash (NYSE:DASH) as the food delivery company starts trading after its eagerly awaited IPO.
There’s more jobs data on the economic slate Wednesday, with the JOLTs Job Openings survey. This is expected to show 6.3 million openings in November, compared with 6.436 million in October.
Oil prices edged higher Wednesday, after Iraqi militants attacked a crude field in the country, reversing an earlier loss driven by a jump in U.S. fuel stockpiles.
The American Petroleum Institute stated late Tuesday that U.S. crude oil supplies rose by 1.14 million barrels for the week ending Dec. 4, rather than the 1.51-million-barrel draw expected. This puts the focus now on the supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, due later Wednesday.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% higher at $45.78 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 0.5% to $49.07.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,861.85/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.2117.