US stock futures edged higher on Wednesday as investors focused on the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest rate decision. Oil prices pulled back from recent highs, while Treasury yields remained near the 5% mark. The market also tracked fresh moves in technology stocks after two consecutive sessions of losses on Wall Street.
At 7:00 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 115 points, or 0.22%. S&P 500 E-minis gained 0.25%, and NASDAQ 100 E-minis rose 0.50%. Traders are pricing a 92.5% chance of a quarter-point rate increase, according to CME FedWatch data, up from 61.2% a week earlier. The Fed will announce its decision at 2 p.m. ET, with markets widely expecting a 25-basis-point hike that would lift the federal funds target range from 3.50%–3.75% to 3.75%–4.00%.
Oil prices eased on Wednesday after a sharp rally the previous session. Brent crude fell below $108 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate traded near $104. The drop followed U.S. industry data showing crude inventories rose by 7.1 million barrels in the week ended September 11. Despite the pullback, oil remained above $100 a barrel as supply concerns persist.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield held around 5% after moving above that level on Tuesday, briefly reaching its highest since 2007. Higher bond yields have increased borrowing costs and added pressure on stocks, particularly companies reliant on heavy capital spending.
In the technology sector, Intel led premarket gains with a more than 5% rise after reports that SK Hynix is in talks with the U.S. chipmaker about producing memory chips domestically. NVIDIA rose less than 1%, while Meta remained nearly flat. Microsoft and Apple edged slightly lower. The broader tech sector remains under scrutiny as AI executives call for a slower pace of advanced model development, raising questions about future spending on chips, data centers, and cloud infrastructure.
Global markets also moved higher. Europe’s STOXX 600 gained around 0.3%, and a broad Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan rose 0.6%. Investors across major markets now await the Fed’s decision and remarks from Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, which will provide clues on the future path of interest rates. Oil prices, Treasury yields, and the Fed’s rate outlook remain the primary drivers of U.S. stock futures ahead of Wednesday’s opening bell.
