Investing.com – Wall Street was set to open higher on Tuesday as the House prepares to vote on the highly anticipated tax reform bill.
The S&P 500 futures rose just over one and a half points or 0.07% as of 6:46 AM ET (11:46 GMT) while Dow futures increased 37 points or 0.15%. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up over one and a half points or 0.03%.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the highly anticipated tax bill at 1:30 PM ET (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday with the Senate expected to follow on Wednesday or Thursday.
Investors expect the bill to pass before Christmas, which has boosted optimism in the last weeks of the year. The tax bill would cut corporate taxes to 21% from 35%, which some say would encourage companies to spend more, boosting the economy.
Telecommunications firm Nokia (HE:NOKIA) was among the top gainers in pre-market trading, rising 0.21% while On Track Innovations Ltd (NASDAQ:OTIV) surged 50.22%. Chinese e-commerce firm Vipshop Holdings Limited (NYSE:VIPS) increasing 5.02% after JD.com and Tencent invested $863 million in the company in a bid to combat rival e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA).
Elsewhere Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 0.93% after its chief in India left the company amid sluggish iPhone sales. IP firm Marathon Patent Group Inc (NASDAQ:MARA) was down 6.15% following news that the company was selling over a million shares of its common stock while power supply solutions firm Digital Power Corporation (NYSE:DPW) decreased 2.73%.
In Europe stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell nine points or 0.07% while in France the CAC 40 decreased seven points or 0.13% and in London, the FTSE 100 inched forward 11 points or 0.15%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 was down five points or 0.16% while Spain’s IBEX 35 gained 20 points or 0.20%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.06% to $1,266.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.54% to $57.53 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.11% to 93.13.