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NEW YORK – Wall Street futures rose on Wednesday as traders braced for expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates to a higher level to slow rising inflation.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.8%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.4%. European shares were higher at midday, Asian markets were mixed and oil prices were slightly higher.
Boeing shares rose 3.2 percent in premarket trading after the aerospace company said it delivered more planes in the first quarter since the outbreak began. Tech stocks of Microsoft and Google parent have surged after their latest quarterly reports. Ford and Facebook parent Meta reported results after the bell.
The Fed is expected to announce a rate hike of up to three-quarters of a percent on Wednesday. Investors worry that aggressive moves by the Fed and other central banks in Europe and Asia to control inflation, which is at multi-decade highs, could derail global economic growth.
“The main risk at this stage is that ‘overinflating’ inflation could lead to a rapid increase in money supply and an unnecessary increase in unemployment,” Thomas Kosterg of Pictut Wealth Management said in a report. Koster said most economic indicators and low commodity prices already point to slower inflation going forward.
In midday trading, the FTSE 100 in London was up 0.6%, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.4% and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.3%.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index fell less than 0.1 percent to 3,275.76, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent to 27,715.75. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 1.4% to 20,620.10.
Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 6,823.20 after data showed Australian inflation rose to 6.1% from 5.1% in the latest quarter, but the increase was smaller than expected.
The Kospi in Seoul rose 0.1% to 2,415.53 and India’s Sensex rose 0.8% to 55,715.95. New Zealand declined while Southeast Asian markets advanced.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2% after Walmart warned that higher inflation was hurting U.S. consumer spending. Walmart shares fell 7.6% and dragged down Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s.
The Dow fell 0.7% on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.9% as tech stocks retreated.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 99 cents to $95.97 on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s electronic trading platform. The contract traded down $1.72 to $94.98 on Tuesday. Brent crude, the benchmark for global oil prices, rose 97 cents to $100.44 a barrel in London.
The dollar rose to 136.86 yen from 136.00 yen on Tuesday. The euro gained from $1.0120 to $1.0146.
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