Stock futures rose on Wednesday as investors awaited the latest inflation data and minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting.
Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 140 points, or 0.48%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.67% and 0.87%, respectively.
Earlier, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.65% and 1.1%, respectively, their fifth straight day of losses. The Dow closed higher, up about 36 points, but gave up most of the gains that had rebounded earlier in the session.
Stocks pulled back from their highs and bond yields edged higher when the Bank of England said its market intervention would end soon and pension funds had only three days to rebalance positions.
Investors were looking ahead to the September producer price index, a measure of wholesale prices for final demand, released on Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the headline PPI to rise 0.2%, after falling 0.1% the previous month.
The minutes of the Fed’s September meeting will also be released on Wednesday. While Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that aggressive rate hikes could be painful, the central bank will continue to fight to bring down inflation.
“Powell reiterated his mantra that we can’t have a strong economy or a strong labor market without price stability,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “Investors worry about restrictions. Temporary monetary policy, i.e. tightening financial conditions, could lead to the kind of financial disaster that would dry up liquidity and cause more damage to the global economy.”