Investing.com - U.S. futures rose on Wednesday in holiday-thinned trading as trade optimism and prospects of the Federal Reserve cutting rates at its next policy meeting helped boost investor sentiment.
NASDAQ 100 futures jumped 31 points or 0.4% by 6:40 AM ET (10:40 GMT), while Dow futures gained 61 points or 0.2% and S&P 500 futures rose 8 points or 0.3%.
The New York Stock Exchange will close its doors early at 1:00 PM ET (17:00 GMT) and remain shut on Thursday for the Fourth of July holiday.
Stocks rallied earlier this week after the U.S. and China agreed to a trade truce. Investors have remained optimistic as they wait for information about the health of the U.S. economy and further clues about the Federal Reserve changing its monetary stance.
Private payroll processor ADP releases nonfarm employment for June on Wednesday, while the U.S. Department of Labor will release its weekly jobless claims. Both data sets are ahead of the widely anticipated nonfarm payrolls released on Friday.
The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index and Services PMI for June and factory orders for May will also be released later in the day.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was among the top gainers in premarket trading, jumping 7.4% after it reported it had delivered 95,200 electric cars in the second quarter, which was more than expected.
Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) was up 1.9%, while Micron (NASDAQ:MU) inched up 0.6% and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) gained 0.5%.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) fell 1.3% after reports that it could have to pay a hefty premium to become the first foreign company to own a majority stake in a Chinese joint venture. The company will incur a premium of at least 33% for the 2% of shares that are being put up for sale, CNN reported.
In commodities, crude oil rose 0.9% to $56.73 a barrel, while gold futures surged 1.4% to $1,428.05 a troy ounce. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 96.278.