Futures signal more gains on Wall Street; eyes on data, Biden-Xi meeting
(Reuters) — U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday, paving the way for fresh gains on Wall Street, as an encouraging inflation report fueled hopes U.S. interest rates have peaked.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted their biggest daily percentage gains in more than six months on Tuesday as softer-than-expected consumer prices data supported the view that the U.S. Federal Reserve was done raising interest rates.
Money market futures suggest traders have priced in a 95% chance the U.S. central bank will keep rates steady in December, as per CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) Fedwatch tool. They also see the first rate cut of the cycle to kick off in May 2024.
Investors will focus on fresh data, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT), which is expected to show producer prices rose 1.9% in October from last year, slowing from a 2.2% increase in September.
Separately, retail sales are expected to have slipped 0.3% on a month-over-month basis in October after 0.7% increase in September.
Focus will also be on meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time in a year on Wednesday, for talks that may ease friction between the adversarial superpowers on military conflicts, drug-trafficking and artificial intelligence.
At 5:23 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 66 points, or 0.19%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 67 points, or 0.42%.
Further aiding the mood, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a temporary spending bill that would avert a government shutdown, with broad support from lawmakers in both parties.
To prevent a shutdown, the Senate and Republican-controlled House must enact a legislation that President Joe Biden can sign into a
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