Futures inch higher, Target to report - what's moving markets

investing.com:

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures inch up on Wednesday, after the main indices on Wall Street soared in the prior session on optimism that slower-than-projected inflation data may lead the Federal Reserve to end its long-standing policy tightening campaign. Meanwhile, Target (NYSE:TGT) gears up to release its latest quarterly results and industrial activity in China grows at a faster than expected pace in October.

1. Futures tick higher

U.S. stock futures pointed into the green on Wednesday, as investors digested the implications of a softer-than-anticipated October inflation reading on Federal Reserve interest rate policy and looked ahead to more earnings from major retail chains this week.

By 05:00 ET (10:00 GMT), the Dow futures contract had added 46 points or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures had risen by 9 points or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 futures had climbed by 50 points or 0.3%.

The three indices finished sharply higher in the previous session after Labor Department figures showed that price growth in the world's largest economy had slowed by more than expected to 3.2% on an annualized basis last month. The data boosted hopes that the Fed's unprecedented run of interest rate hikes aimed at corralling elevated inflation may have peaked.

In their best day since April, the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite moved up by 1.9% and 2.4%, respectively. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average also gained 1.4%.

Market expectations that the Fed could now cut rates as soon as May of next year increased, while the chance of a reduction in March now stands at around 30%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. The rate-sensitive 2-year U.S. Treasury yield is at 4.853% following a 22 basis-point overnight