Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to lower opening bell as the Federal Reserve looks poised to continue gradually increasing interest rates.
The S&P 500 futures fell 9 points or 0.33% to 2,807.0 as of 6:50 AM ET (10:50 GMT) while Dow futures were down 69 points, or 0.27%, to 25,667.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures decreased 32 points, or 0.44%, to 7,281.0.
The hawkish Fed minutes released on Thursday showed that while the central bank had some doubts about the economy, it still planned to gradually increase interest rates in December and possibly beyond.
Chances of a Fed rate hike at its meeting in December were priced in at 86.4%, according to Investment.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Endocyte Inc (NASDAQ:ECYT) was among the top gainers in premarket trading, surging 48.46% on news that the cancer drugmaker is being bought by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN) for $2.1 billion. Nokia (NYSE:NOK) rose 2.36% while Praxair (NYSE:PX) increased 5.13%.
Elsewhere Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) dipped 0.46% while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) lost 0.78% and Chinese e-commerce site Jd.Com Inc Adr (NASDAQ:JD) inched down 0.34%.
In earnings news, American Express (NYSE:AXP) and PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) are just some of the many companies expected to report financial results on Thursday.
On the data front, weekly jobless claims numbers are released at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT), while the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index comes out at the same time.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.08% to $1,226.40 a troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 1.00% to $69.05 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.10% to 95.25.