Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening on Wednesday as well-received earnings updates from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices support sentiment.
Trading is expected to be reasonably muted as the market awaits news later today from trade talks between the U.S. and China, and from the Federal Reserve's press conference half an hour after its interest rate decision at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT). No change in official interest rates is expected.
Trade tensions between the two largest economies in the world are easing, Apple CEO Tim Cook said as he unveiled the company's better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. Its shares are marked up 5.5% ahead of the opening.
However, unease is still running high since the U.S. charged Huawei and its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou for allegedly violating sanctions on Iran.
Officials from the two sides meet in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday.
"I expect that the Washington summit will help pave the way for an extension of the trade truce. This is also what markets expect and a failure of the talks is not priced in at all," said Giuseppe Sersale, fund manager at Anthilia Capital.
The S&P 500 futures rose 6 points or 0.24% as of 6:41 AM ET (11:41 GMT) while Dow futures gained 78 points, or 0.32%. Meanwhile tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 49 points, or 0.74%.
Earnings season continues, with results from Boeing (NYSE:BA), McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), among others.
Elsewhere, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained 1.6%, while Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) rose 8.8% after its earnings met expectations, while General Electric (NYSE:GE) was up 1.4%.
Elsewhere, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) fell 1.8%, while Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR) slipped 1.8% and Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) was down 3.5%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.25% near an eighth-month high of $1,312.15 a troy ounce, while crude oil increased 0.77% to $53.72 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 95.52.
-Reuters contributed to this report.