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© Reuters. U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening bell on Wednesday.
Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday as comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and easing concern over Italy bolstered investor sentiment.
The S&P 500 futures rose 7 points or 0.25% to 2,935.75 as of 6:45 AM ET (10:45 GMT) while Dow futures gained 54 points, or 0.20%, to 26,861.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 20 points, or 0.26%, to 7,672.75.
Central bank chief Jerome Powell told the National Association for Business Economics on Tuesday that the U.S. economic outlook is positive thanks to a "historically rare" combination of low unemployment and tepid inflation.
His comments increased investor confidence ahead of a flurry of economic data expected before the release of Friday’s jobs report.
The ADP private-sector payrolls numbers come out at 8:15 AM ET (12:15 GMT) while the ISM services activity data is expected at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).
Meanwhile, easing economic worry in Italy also helped boost trading. Italian newspapers reported that Italy’s populist government will reduce its budget deficit targets for 2020 and 2021 instead of sticking to 2.4% for three years as originally proposed.
Homebuilder Lennar (NYSE:LEN) was among the top gainers in premarket trading, surging 6.80% after reporting higher than expected revenue. Meanwhile Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) rose 1.46% while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gained 0.64% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) increased 1.47% after reports that it increased production by 50% in the third quarter.
Elsewhere Carnival (LON:CCL) fell 0.48% while Tower International Inc (NYSE:TOWR) dipped 2.71%.
In Europe stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell 51 points or 0.42% while in France the CAC 40 was up 22 points or 0.41% and in London the FTSE 100 increased 24 points or 0.33%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 24 points or 0.73% while Spain’s IBEX 35 surged 57 points or 0.62%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.07% to $1,207.80 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.11% to $75.31 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched down 0.02% to 95.11.
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