By Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures climbed on Wednesday, with those tied to the benchmark S&P 500 touching all-time highs, as investors awaited crucial economic data and remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
November private payrolls data, due at 8:15 a.m. ET, is expected to show fewer additions compared to the previous month, while the highly anticipated November monthly employment report is expected on Friday.
Traders currently see a 74% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut from the Fed this month, compared to a more than 66% chance seen a week earlier, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
U.S. central bank officials said on Tuesday they still believe inflation is heading down to their 2% target. While most signaled support for further interest-rate cuts, none pushed strongly for or against another reduction at the Fed’s meeting in two weeks.
“Upbeat data, followed by a reiteration of Powell’s view that the Fed is not in a rush to lower interest rates, could prompt market participants to increase their January pause bets,” said Charalampos Pissouros, senior market analyst at forex broker XM.
Powell’s comments are due later in the day, while the ‘Beige Book’, the central bank’s U.S. economic activity survey, is scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Other central bankers including Alberto Musalem and Thomas Barkin are also scheduled to speak through the day.
November non-manufacturing activity surveys from S&P Global and the Institute for Supply Management are due shortly after markets open.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted record closing highs on Tuesday, as tech-related stocks continued to rise in a turbulent session.
U.S. stocks had a solid November after President-elect Donald Trump recaptured the White House in the Nov. 5 election and his Republican Party swept both houses of Congress.
The benchmark S&P 500 is up almost 27% so far this year, significantly outperforming bourses in Europe, Japan and mainland China.
At 07:00 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 205 points, or 0.46%, S&P 500 E-minis gained 18.5 points, or 0.31%, hitting an all-time high, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 137.25 points, or 0.64%.
Most megacaps and growth stocks were broadly higher in premarket trading, with Microsoft and Nvidia leading gains with a 0.9% rise each.
General Motors slipped 1.5% after the automaker said it would record two non-cash charges totaling more than $5 billion on its China operations.
Dollar Tree gained 6.5% after the discount store operator beat third-quarter sales estimates, while drugmaker Eli Lilly was up 2.2% after its weight-loss drug Zepbound topped rival Wegovy in a head-to-head study.
Salesforce jumped 12.6% after the enterprise cloud company beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast.
Marvell Technology advanced 14% after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analyst estimates, while digital identity verification firm Okta soared 15.1% after reporting third-quarter profit versus a year-ago loss.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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