(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday ahead of retail sales figures, while traders assessed the latest developments following reports on Tuesday of a missile landing in Polish territory near Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the missile that killed two people in Poland was unlikely to have been fired from Russia.
Wall Street ended Tuesday higher despite geopolitical worries, after slower U.S. producer price growth data added to improved inflation outlook for the world’s largest economy.
Equities have rallied after a cooler-than-expected report on consumer prices last week raised hopes of less aggressive tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
“The big test now will be whether these very positive numbers from October can be sustained, or whether it’s a repeat of July’s downside surprise that was then followed by more negative prints once again,” Deutsche Bank’s head of global fundamental credit strategy Jim Reid said.
Investors awaited key retail sales figures due at 8:30 am ET on Wednesday for further cues on the strength of the U.S. economy.
Target Corp and Lowe’s Companies Inc, reporting their results later in the day, rose 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively, in early premarket trading.
Retailer Walmart Inc jumped 6.5% in the previous session on lifting its annual sales and profit forecasts, helped by steady demand for groceries despite higher prices.
At 04:47 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 65 points, or 0.19%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 8 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 20.25 points, or 0.17%.
Nvidia Corp slipped 0.6% in premarket trading on Wednesday ahead of its third-quarter results later in the day. The semiconductor company is expected to report a decline in quarterly revenue amid a weakening PC market as well as restrictions on exports to China.
Other megacap growth and technology companies such as Amazon.com gained 0.3%, while Apple and Alphabet were subdued.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
