Investing.com - U.S. stock markets pointed to a muted open on Wednesday morning, as investors looked ahead to President-elect Donald Trump’s first press conference since his election victory later in the day.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 16 points, or less than 0.1%, by 6:55AM ET (11:55GMT), the S&P 500 futures tacked on 1 point, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures added 6 points, or 0.1%.
Wall Street ended mixed on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq hitting a fresh record high, while the Dow edged lower, moving further away from the elusive 20,000-level.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump takes center stage with his first post-election news conference at 11:00AM ET (16:00GMT) on Wednesday.
Investors will welcome any detail he may give on his promises of tax reform, infrastructure spending and deregulation, as well as insight regarding policies on China and the domestic economy.
Trump has been credited with being a major catalyst behind the market's impressive rally since election day, although he has yet to outline his economic policies in detail.
He will officially take office on January 20.
There is no major economic data due Wednesday.
On the earnings front, SuperValu (NYSE:SVU) is set to report before the bell, while KB Home (NYSE:KBH) is due after the market close.
U.S. stocks have rallied sharply since Donald Trump was elected president, in what many analysts refer to as the “Trump rally”, on the back of hopes that the incoming president will implement fiscal policies that will spur growth and be positive for stocks.
However, market participants have so far balked at the psychologically important 20,000-point level, with experts suggesting that Trump will need to follow through on expectations in order for stocks to be able to maintain the upward momentum.
Elsewhere, European stock markets wavered between small gains and losses, with investors holding off on major moves ahead of Donald Trump’s widely anticipated speech.
London's FTSE100 rose to yet another record-high on the back of a broadly weaker pound.
In Asia, markets ended mixed, with the Shanghai Composite in China closing down around 0.8%, while Japan's Nikkei inched up 0.3%.
Meanwhile, oil prices edged higher, rebounding from sharp overnight losses as traders awaited U.S. inventory data, amid hopes that major producers will stand by their agreement on planned production cuts aimed a draining a global supply glut.
U.S. crude was up 27 cents, or around 0.5%, to $51.10, while Brent tacked on 28 cents, or 0.5%, to $53.92 a barrel.
In the currency market, the dollar edged higher against the yen, euro and pound as traders braced for Trump's speech.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.3% at 102.33.