By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening largely unchanged Wednesday, remaining near record levels amid rising investor optimism over the economic recovery as Covid-19 vaccination program ramps up.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 8 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 Futures traded 1 points, or 0.01%, lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 18 points, or 0.1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high Tuesday, its eighth record this year. The S&P 500, meanwhile, fell 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.3%, with these two indices closing not far below record levels.
Stock markets have benefited from the expectation of the Biden administration delivering a $1.9 trillion stimulus package this month, while the government also announced Tuesday plans to acquire an additional 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, enough to inoculate most Americans by summer.
That said, U.S. stock markets have posted strong gains very quickly, and a 10% pullback seems “very plausible” with markets balanced on a risk-reward basis, said Citigroup (NYSE:C), in a research note Tuesday.
With this in mind, investors will look carefully at the minutes of January’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, at 2 PM ET (1900 GMT). The central bank decided to keep its easy money policy in place last month, and the minutes could provide clues as to how long the members think this will continue to be the case.
The main release on the economic data slate is January retail sales, at 8:30 AM ET (1350 GMT). This is expected to show a rebound of 1.1% compared with a decline of 0.7% in December. Out at 8:15 AM ET are industrial production data for January, which are expected to show a fourth straight monthly rise.
In corporate news, Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) and Hilton Worldwide (NYSE:HLT) release earnings Wednesday, but energy stocks will remain in focus as a deep freeze in the South has cut electricity to millions of households.
This cold snap also pushed oil prices higher Wednesday, cutting output from oil and gas fields in the U.S. state of Texas, the country's biggest oil-producing region.
U.S. crude futures traded 1% higher at $60.66 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 1.4% to $64.22, not far removed from the 13-month highs earlier this week.
U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute will be studied carefully later in the session.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,790.60/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.4% lower at 1.2060.