Futures Points To Positive Open For Wall Street

The Fed’s monetary policy announcement might be the focus on Wednesday. The existing Home Sales report for August also might get attention.

Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open positive.
Asian shares finished mixed, while European shares are trading up.

As of 7.55 am ET, the Dow futures were up 188.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 22.75 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 43.00 points.

The U.S. major averages finished mostly lower on Tuesday. The Nasdaq rose 32.50 points or 0.2 percent to 14,746.40, the Dow dipped 50.63 points or 0.2 percent to 33,919.84 and the S&P 500 edged down 3.54 points or 0.1 percent to 4,354.19. The Dow ended the session at its lowest closing level in three months.

On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors Existing Home Sales for August will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for 5.90 million, while it was up 5.99 million in the previous month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Petroleum Status Report for the week is scheduled at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the Crude Oil Inventories were down 6.4 million barrels and the Gasoline Inventories were declining 1.9 million barrels.
A two-year Floating Rate Note or FRN auction will be held at 11.30 am ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC announcement will be at 2.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the Federal Funds Rate target level was in a range of 0 to 25 percent.

Asian stock markets traded in mixed territory. Chinese stock markets resumed trading after local holidays but were not overwhelmed by the Evergrande fiasco.

The major benchmarks of Australia and New Zealand ended positive, Japanese Nikkei continued to be beleaguered. Markets in Hong Kong and Korea were closed due to local holidays.

China’s Shanghai composite overcame the initial setback of a gap down opening at 3563.21 and finally closed the day’s trading at 3628.49, up 14.52 points or 0.40 percent from the previous close.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 200.31 points or 0.67 percent.

Australia’s S&P/ASX200 closed trading at 7,296.90 after gaining 23.10 points or 0.32 percent. The index is currently 4.40 percent below its 52-week high of 7632.80.

European shares are trading higher. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is progressing 73.85 points or 1.13 percent. The German DAX is adding 88.66 points or 0.58 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is gaining 86.46 points or 1.24 percent.

The Swiss Market Index is adding 21.88 points or 0.19 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is up 0.87 percent.

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