Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a rebound at the open after reports that the Senate will vote Thursday on rival proposals to end the partial shutdown of the federal government while better-than-expected results from Dow components boosted sentiment.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 149 points, or 0.61%, to 24,538.5 points by 7:08 AM ET (12:08 GMT), the S&P 500 futures rose 10 points, or 0.38%, to 2,642.12points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 31 points, or 0.46%, to 6,683.88 points.
Wall Street registered a sharp decline on Tuesday as concerns of a slowdown in global growth hit U.S. stocks on the back of the International Monetary Fund’s warning of escalating risks from the U.S.-Sino trade dispute and uncertainty surrounding the U.K.’s departure from the European Union.
Wednesday’s bounce came as Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he planned to hold votes Thursday on two separate proposals to end the government shutdown. As the record-long political impasse entered its 33rd straight day, little hope was seen that either proposal would mark a breakthrough in the dispute over funding for the border wall with Mexico.
“Risk asset prices have been essentially supported just by easing of U.S. rate hike expectations,” said Shuji Shirota, head of macro-economics strategy at HSBC Securities.
“Economic data has been weak and the U.S. government shutdown should be hurting economic sentiment, but even that has been considered as positive for risk assets, on the grounds that they make it difficult for the Fed to raise rates.”
Experts comment that the shutdown also complicates the data-dependent Fed’s ability to evaluate the U.S. economy with the Commerce Department not releasing essential data.
Meanwhile, sentiment received a boost from positive earnings reports from Dow components IBM (NYSE:IBM), Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX).
Ford (NYSE:F) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) are among companies reporting after the market close.
Outside of equities, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six rival currencies, slipped 0.04% to 95.93 by 6:54 AM ET (11:54 GMT), while the yield on the 10-year Treasury gained 2.9 basis points to 2.76%.
In commodities, gold futures edged forward 0.11% at $1,284.75 a troy ounce, while crude oil gained 0.72% to $53.39 a barrel.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.