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U.S. equity futures were mixed on Wednesday as investors await a rate policy decision from the Federal Reserve due Wednesday and earnings reports from mega-cap technology companies.
The Dow Jones Industrials hiked 161.79 points to 52,539.36.
The S&P 500 index acquired 17.61 points to 7,740.21.
The tech-heavy NASDAQ inched ahead 2.15 points to 26,480.
U.S. chipmakers moved higher in premarket trading Wednesday, buoyed by SK Hynix posting record quarterly profit — a development that sent U.S. shares of the South Korean chipmaker up nearly 8%.
Micron Technology was up 4%, while Arm Holdings advanced 2%. Intel and Marvell Technology each added almost 2%, as did Advanced Micro Devices.
Investors’ attention will remain on the artificial intelligence trade after the bell, as “Magnificent Seven” giants Alphabet and Microsoft will kick off Big Tech earnings. The former was last seen up more than 1%, while the latter was down marginally.
Focus will turn to domestic monetary policy as the Fed wraps up its two-day policy meeting. The central bank is widely predicted to keep interest rates steady at a target rate range of 3.75% to 4%.
Policymakers raised rates by a quarter percentage point at their September meeting.
According to CME’s FedWatch tool, there’s a roughly 90% chance that the Fed maintains the current interest rate, but some expect that Chairman Kevin Warsh will signal that more hikes are coming in future policy meetings. The decision on interest rates will be announced at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury fell, raising yields to 5.03% from Tuesday’s 4.98%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regained $2.95 to $102.85 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slumped $20.70 to $4,053.90 U.S. an ounce.
