Stock market news live updates: Stock futures rise ahead of Powell’s speech

U.S. stock futures looked Wednesday to rebound from a sluggish start to the week as investors await comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 (^GSPC) inched higher by 0.2% in premarket trading, while futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ticked up by 0.1%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose by 0.3%.

Stocks finished lower on Tuesday, even as concerns regarding China’s strict zero-COVID policy abated. U.S.-listed Chinese stocks rose on Tuesday as Beijing announced plans to accelerate vaccination of China’s elderly, spurring optimism among investors about a path forward for easing COVID restrictions amid nationwide protests.

The U.S. dollar was weaker early Wednesday, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped to 3.733% from 3.755% on Tuesday. In oil markets, the global benchmark Brent crude (BZ=F) climbed 2.3% to $82.90 a barrel. WTI crude oil (CL=F) rose 2.6% on Wednesday to $80.25 a barrel.

For investors, though, all eyes will be on the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Wednesday afternoon at the Brookings Institution, the last speech before the Fed’s next rate setting meeting in mid-December. But “investors are oscillating between bracing for a repeat of Jackson Hole and seeing Powell reiterate the views from other recent Fedspeak,” wrote Andrew Tyler, head of US Market Intelligence at J.P. Morgan.

As the Fed strives to meet its dual mandate of price stability and maximum sustained employment, it is widely expected that Powell will signal that the Fed is on track to ease up slightly on its pace of monetary policy tightening, likely to step down to a 50-basis-points increase.

This speech also comes less than two weeks before the release of November’s consumer price data.

“All eyes are going to continue to be on inflation at this point,” Providence Financial & Insurance Services President Anthony Saccaro told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday.

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Meanwhile, investors are watching for another wave of macroeconomic data. That includes jobs data, with the ADP employment survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) survey; the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index, which measures the price of consumer goods and services; the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI); pending home sales; and the Fed’s Beige Book.

On the earnings front, Salesforce (CRM), Five Below (FIVE), Okta, Inc. (OKTA), Snowflake (SNOW), Victoria’s Secret (VSCO) and Petco (WOOF) are set to report earnings on Wednesday.

In premarket trading, shares of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD) sank more 18% after the cybersecurity company’s forecasted quarter revenue came in short of analyst expectations as clients cut back on spending and delayed purchases due to macroeconomic headwinds. DoorDash (DASH) is laying off about 1,250 people in an effort to cut expenses, according to a report from Bloomberg, citing a memo from it CEO Tony Xu.

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Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @daniromerotv

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