Futures tick up with focus on Fed commentary, economic data

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday, with those tied to the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs as investors focus on upcoming data and commentary from central bank officials including Chair Jerome Powell.

November private payrolls data is due at 8:15 a.m. ET, while the highly anticipated November monthly employment report is expected on Friday.

Traders currently see a near 74% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut by the Fed this month, compared to a more than 66% chance seen a week earlier, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials said on Tuesday they continue to believe inflation is heading down to their 2% target. While most signaled support for further interest-rate cuts, none pushed strongly for or against a reduction at the Fed's meeting in two weeks.

Comments from Fed Chair Powell are due later in the day, while the 'Beige Book', a U.S. economic activity survey from the central bank, is scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.

November non-manufacturing activity surveys from S&P Global and the Institute for Supply Management are due shortly after markets open.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted record closing highs on Tuesday, as tech-related stocks continued their rise in a turbulent session.

U.S. stocks had a solid November after President-elect Donald Trump recaptured the White House in the Nov. 5 election and his Republican Party swept both houses of Congress.

The benchmark S&P 500 is up almost 27% so far this year, significantly outperforming bourses in Europe, Japan and mainland China.

At 05:03 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 188 points, or 0.42%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 13.75 points, or 0.23%, hitting all-time highs, while Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 114.25 points, or 0.54%.

Most megacap and growth stocks were broadly higher in premarket trading, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA ) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) leading gains with a 0.9% rise each.



Salesforce (NYSE:CRM ) jumped 12.8% after the enterprise cloud company beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast.

Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL ) Technology advanced 12.4% after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analyst estimates, while digital identity verification firm Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA ) soared 17.2% after reporting third-quarter profit versus a year-ago loss.

Source: Investing.com