Initial Trends Suggest Wall Street To Open Moderately Up

(RTTNews) - On a lean day of economic announcements, geopolitical developments might be important on Wednesday. Initial trends from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open slightly up.

Asian shares finished mostly up, while European shares are trading positive.

The US dollar weakened against other major currencies in the European session on Wednesday.

As of 8.10 am ET, the Dow futures were progressing 121.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 13.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were slightly up 59.00 points.

The U.S. major averages ended Tuesday's session near their best levels. The Nasdaq surged 296.50 points or 1.4 percent to 21,681.90, the S&P 500 jumped 72.31 points or 1.1 percent to 6,445.76 and the Dow shot up 483.52 points or 1.1 percent to 44,458.61.

On the economic front, the Energy Information Administration or EIA's Petroleum Status Report for the week will be issued at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the crude oil inventories were down 3.0 million barrels and gasoline inventories were down 1.3 million barrels.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will participate in a moderated question-and-answer session before event, 'Regional Insight, National Impact: a Monetary Policy Luncheon with the Chicago Fed' hosted by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce at 1.00 pm ET.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will speak on the economic outlook before an event hosted by the Atlanta Fed in partnership with the Franklin County Economic Development Authority at 1.30 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Wednesday. Chinese markets eked out modest gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index rose 0.48 percent to 3,683.46.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 2.58 percent to 25,613.67.

Japanese markets rose sharply. The Nikkei average hit an intraday high of 43,451.46 before closing up 1.30 percent at a record high level of 43,274.67. The broader Topix index settled 0.83 percent higher at 3,091.91.

Australian markets fell notably. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.60 percent to 8,827.10 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed 0.52 percent lower at 9,103.10.