U.S. stock futures traded marginally higher Wednesday, rebounding after relatively hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve and a warning from a slowdown in China sales from Nvidia weighed.
By 06:40 ET (11:40 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 13 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 10 points, or 0.2%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 52 points, or 0.3%.
The main indices on Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 dropping 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling 0.6%, both ending five-day winning streaks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also dropped 0.2%.
Fed minutes weigh on sentiment
The minutes from the Fed’s November gathering were released on Tuesday, and showed officials agreed to take a cautious approach to raising U.S. interest rates going forward.
Although the Fed officials also indicated they would only raise interest rates if progress in controlling inflation faltered, this guarded approach weighed on enthusiasm about when rate cuts will arrive.
Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday means that the weekly jobless claims data are brought forward a day, and join durable goods data for October and the latest readings of consumer confidence on the economic data slate later Wednesday.
Nvidia warns about weakening Chinese sales
The big news in the corporate world was the release of the latest quarterly earnings from artificial intelligence chip leader Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) after the close Tuesday.
The tech giant continued to reap the benefits from a boom in demand for AI-powered products, beating forecasts on both the top and bottom lines.
However, the company also warned that sales in its key Chinese market would “decline significantly” in its current quarter due to last month’s move by the Biden administration to extend the scope of its sanctions on exports of cutting-edge AI chips to the country.
Elsewhere, Sam Altman is set to return to the helm of OpenAI just days after he was sacked as chief executive of the big-name generative artificial intelligence group.
The day’s major earnings release comes from Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), with the world’s largest farm equipment maker forecasting 2024 profit below expectations as high borrowing costs and squeezed budgets dented demand for farm equipment.
Oil falls on sharp U.S. inventories build
Oil prices slumped Wednesday after industry data pointed to a substantial build in U.S. inventories, but losses are likely to be restrained by the proximity to the weekend’s OPEC+ meeting.
By 06:40 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% lower at $76.82 a barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 1.2% to $81.46 a barrel.
The American Petroleum Institute estimated that U.S. stockpiles grew over 9 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, substantially more than expectations for a build of 1.5 million barrels.
If confirmed by official data later in the session, this would be the fourth straight week of builds for U.S. inventories, indicating that oil supplies remained robust.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, meet on Nov. 26, and reports suggest that Saudi Arabia and Russia – two major producers in the group – were considering deeper supply cuts to support oil prices.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.1% to $2,003.75/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0899.
