Futures rose early Wednesday as stocks looked to resume their February rally. The S&P 500 snapped a six-day winning streak on Tuesday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures implied an opening gain of more than 100 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures also rose 0.4%.
Better-than-expected earnings from Twitter, Lyft, Cisco Systems, Mattel and Yelp boosted sentiment on Wall Street. Lyft reported signs of a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Traders will also be watching closely Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech before The Economic Club of New York at 2:00 p.m. ET.
On Tuesday, stocks snapped a six-day winning streak, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 10 points.
The Nasdaq Composite was the relative outperformer, gaining 0.15% as Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix all closed higher.
The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 gained 0.4% to an all-time high, bringing the index’s weekly gain to nearly 3%. Investors are betting on small caps as a proxy for an economic recovery from the pandemic.
The S&P 500 is up 5% in February.
Investors are also monitoring progress on a Covid-19 stimulus package. House Democrats on Monday unveiled the details of a relief proposal that included $1,400 direct checks with faster phase-outs than previous bills.
“The virus is continuing to mutate, vaccines are taking longer than expected to distribute and achieving herd immunity seems as if it will take a lot longer as a result. On the bright side, massive fiscal stimulus and an extremely accommodative Federal Reserve should keep equities moving higher while we wait for those setbacks to be resolved,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance.
The consumer price index report is scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect a consensus 0.3% increase in the index, a measure of inflation, or a year-over-year gain of 1.5%, according to Dow Jones. Excluding food and energy, it is projected to rise by 0.1%.
Earnings season continues on Wednesday with Coca-Cola, General Motors and Under Armour set to report before the opening bell.
Uber Technologies and MGM Resorts report earnings after the bell on Wednesday.
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