Pre-open mover
US stock futures traded slightly higher in early premarket trading on Wednesday after posting losses on Tuesday. The Dow Jones closed more than 300 points lower while the Nasdaq Composite fell over 100 points in the previous session.
The Federal Reserve will announce its monetary policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET. The country’s central bank is widely expected to hike interest rates by 75 basis points at the meeting. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Existing Home Sales data for August will be released at 10:00 am ET. US existing home sales, which have been falling every month since February, are expected to arrive at an annualized rate of 4.70 in August, compared to 4.81 million in the previous month.
Investors are also awaiting earnings results from General Mills, Inc. GIS, Lennar Corporation LEN and KB Home KBH.
Watch this: Market volatility surges ahead of the Fed rate decision
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34 points to 30,835.00, while futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 4.75 points to 3,877.50. Futures for the Nasdaq index rose 8.25 points to 11,930.50.
raw materials
oil prices was traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 2.6% to $92.95 a barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 2% to $86.15 a barrel. US crude inventories rose 1.035 million barrels in the week ended September 16 from an increase of 6.035 million barrels in the previous week. The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on US petroleum stocks is scheduled for release at 10:30 am ET.
Gold futures were up 0.5% to $1,678.80 an ounce, while silver traded up 1.2% to $19.42 an ounce on Wednesday.
A look at the global markets
Europe markets
European markets were mostly higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 index rose 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 index rose 0.2%. France’s CAC 40 index fell 0.1%, while Germany’s DAX fell 0.2%.
