By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open higher Wednesday, as the Trump administration ramped up the debate about the reopening of the country’s economy.
At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 24 points, or 0.9%, higher, Nasdaq Futures up 70 points, or 0.8%. The Dow futures contract was up 210 points, or 0.9%.
President Donald Trump expressed his desire for the country to reopen quickly Tuesday, saying Americans should begin returning to their normal working lives even if it leads to more sickness and death from the pandemic.
The White House is considering phasing out its Covid-19 task force, according to its head, Vice President Mike Pence.
A number of states have started reopening their businesses, including Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida. But this has appeared to have gone fairly slowly, with consumers still reluctant to risk shopping or a restaurant visit.
The U.S. has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the world, with about 1.2 million people infected and more than 71,000 killed so far. Aggregate numbers in Europe are, however, somewhat higher
The corporate earnings season continues Wednesday, with General Motors (NYSE:GM) set to report before the bell, with investors likely keen on how zero-percent financing offers have helped the automaker before sales were hit by the pandemic.
GM is predicted to have earned 50 cents per share in the quarter on sales of about $32.5 billion.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) stock dropped 1.8% premarket after its Q2 profit slumped 97% versus the same quarter last year due to shut theme parks and halted film and TV productions.
Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) stock dropped 16% premarket after the social media network disappointed with quarterly earnings late Tuesday, while Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) dropped 5% after reporting a quarterly loss of 56 cents per share.
On a positive note, Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) stock climbed 7.8% premarket after the maker of plant-based meat turned a profit in the first quarter, helped by the disruption to the meat supply chain.
Turning to economic data, ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) issues its private sector payrolls report at 8:15 AM ET (12:15 GMT), the first full measure of a month the country spent on lockdown restrictions. This will provide a flavor of the rise in U.S. unemployment last month ahead of Friday’s historic labor market report.
Economists expect that private sector payrolls plunged by 20.05 million, according to forecasts compiled by Investing.com.
Oil futures pushed higher, helped by the American Petroleum Institute saying late Tuesday that its latest measure of inventories rose by 8.4 million barrels, a large number but below the 10 million barrels the week before.
The Energy Information Administration will post the official U.S. figures for crude stockpiles for the week ended May 1 at 10:30 AM ET (14:30 GMT).
At 7 AM ET, U.S. crude June futures traded 3.5% higher at $25.43 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 2.5% to $31.75.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,707.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.0803, down 0.3%.