Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday, as the release of upbeat Chinese economic growth data supported risk sentiment across the board, while markets eyed a fresh batch of first-quarter earnings reports.
Ahead of the open, the Dow 30 futures pointed to a 0.42% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.44% increase, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.52% climb.
Global equities strengthened after data earlier showed that China’s gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 7.4% in the first three months of 2014, slowing from 7.7% in the fourth quarter, but slightly ahead of expectations for growth of 7.3%.
Both Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) were expected to be in focus, after the two companies beat estimates when they reported quarterly earnings after the end of trade on Tuesday. Yahoo shares surged 7.63% in pre-market trade, while Intel rallied 1.68%.
Meanwhile, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) shares held steady in late trading, after soaring over 11% on Tuesday when the microblogging company announced that it had hired Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) executive Daniel Graf to be its new vice president of consumer products.
Google shares were up 0.78% in extended trade, after the tech giant made Google Glass, the wearable computer with a head-mounted display that lets users take photos and video and search the Web, available for one day only on Tuesday.
In the same sector, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) tried to convince jurors on Tuesday that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) exaggerated claims about inventions allegedly copied by the Galaxy maker. The iPhone maker's shares were still up 0.26% after hours.
Other stocks likely to be in focus included Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Google, International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) and Capital One (NYSE:COF), scheduled to report quarterly results later in the day.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were higher. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 jumped 0.90%, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.88%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.73%, while Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.29%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.11%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 3.01%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce reports on housing starts, building permits and industrial production.