(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday, as a dip in Treasury yields helped ease pressure on tech and growth shares, with investors also eyeing key inflation data and minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting to gauge the rate-hike path.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have ended in the red for five straight sessions as a recent set of economic data pointed to more policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve, fanning worries of a recession and triggering a spike in yields.
The producer price index, an important inflation gauge, is expected to have risen 8.4% in the 12 months through September, after advancing 8.7% in August, according a Reuters poll. The data is due at 8:30 am ET.
Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which was held last month, will be released later in the day.
Megacap companies Tesla Inc and Apple Inc added 0.8% each in premarket trading.
At 04:28 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 165 points, or 0.56%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 23.75 points, or 0.66%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 89.25 points, or 0.82%.
The U.S. is scrambling to tackle unintended consequences of its new export curbs on China’s chip industry that could inadvertently harm the semiconductor supply chain, according to a Reuters report.
The Biden administration has allowed at least two non-Chinese chipmakers operating in China to receive restricted goods and services without their suppliers seeking licenses, the report said.
Battered chip shares such as Nvidia Corp, Qualcomm Inc Micron Technology Inc, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel Corp rose between 0.8% and 1.1%.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
