Stocks - U.S. Futures Back in Rally Mode, Oil Jumps 2%
Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday as investors continued to digest President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and impose sanctions on the country, while looking ahead to more earnings reports and inflation data.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 112 points, or 0.46%, by 6:48AM ET (10:48GMT), the S&P 500 futures rose 11 points, or 0.39%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 19 points, or 0.27%
In a televised speech Tuesday, Trump said the United States would withdraw from a 2015 international agreement designed to deny Tehran the ability to build nuclear weapons, and also reimpose “the highest level of economic sanctions” against Iran.
Stocks saw tepid close a day earlier in reaction to the news, but risk appetite appeared to be back in force on Wednesday.
Oil prices soared more than 2% on Wednesday on bets that the return of sanctions would further tighten global supplies as they make it more difficult for Iran to export oil.
U.S. crude futures jumped 2.49% to $70.78 by 6:49AM ET (10:49GMT), while Brent oil traded up 2.43% to $76.67.
The rally came ahead of fresh weekly data on U.S. commercial crude inventories to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer and how fast output levels will continue to rise.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report for the week ended May 4 at 10:30AM ET (1430GMT), amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of 719,000 barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories fell by nearly 1.9 million barrels last week.
Meanwhile, investors were prepped to price in earnings as the first quarter reporting season winds down, with more than 440 of the S&P 500 firms having already released numbers.
After Tuesday’s close, Disney (NYSE:DIS) reported a 21% jump in revenue thanks primarily to its release of Black Panther and higher returns from its theme parks. However, investors appeared to focus on 6% drop in profit for its media networks unit as ESPN continued to lose subscribers. Shares were off around 0.3% in pre-market trade Wednesday, paring losses of more than 1% earlier.
In better news, TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) saw shares soar around 20% in pre-market trade after the travel and restaurant website smashed consensus estimates.
Notable results expected out Wednesday include Twenty-First Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOX), Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL), Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), Office Depot (NASDAQ:ODP), Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU), and IAC/InterActive (NASDAQ:IAC).
On the economic front, the Commerce Department will publish producer price inflation figures for April at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT). Market analysts expect producer prices to inch up 0.2%, weakening from March's 0.3% increase, while core PPI is forecast to rise 0.2%, down from 0.3% a month earlier.
The inflation reading comes ahead of the consumer price index which will be released on Thursday.
Ahead of the data, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose above the psychologically important 3%-level on Wednesday to an intraday high of 3.014%, the highest level in two weeks.
Meanwhile, the dollar was paring earlier gains, having hit a peak of 93.26. At 6:50AM ET (10:50GMT) Wednesday, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was flat at 92.94.
Elsewhere, Europe's major bourses were slightly higher, supported by strength in energy stocks.
Earlier, Asian stocks closed mixed, following the uninspiring overnight lead from Wall Street.
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