Dow futures inch higher ahead of key Federal Reserve decision

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures edged higher Wednesday, with investors awaiting the conclusion of the latest policy meeting by the Federal Reserve, relatively confident that the future interest rate path is lower.

By 06:45 ET (11:45 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 55 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded 7 points, or 0.2%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 32 points, or 0.2%.

The main Wall Street indices posted strong gains Tuesday, their fourth straight positive session, after the release of November consumer prices confirmed that the U.S. remained on a disinflationary path.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 170 points, or 0.5%, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.5% and the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7%.

Fed meeting in focus

Investors will keep an eye on the release of November producer prices, for more clues of the strength of underlying inflation, but Wednesday’s main focus will be the conclusion of the Federal Reserve final policy-setting of the year.

The U.S. central bank is widely expected to hold rates unchanged later in the session for a third straight gathering, meaning that the accompanying comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell will garner most of the attention.

Powell has previously stressed that any decisions will be taken "carefully," particularly as the Fed tries to assess if its recent campaign of aggressive policy tightening has worked to cool inflation.

Market expectations are growing that the Fed may cut rates as soon as next spring, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, and Powell may choose to push back against this narrative.

Netflix releases viewing figures

In corporate news, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) stock edged higher premarket after the streaming giant released viewership figures across its catalog, responding to criticism over its perceived lack of transparency.

Netflix is set to pull ahead of Disney+ in the race for U.S. advertising dollars next year as price hikes and a password-sharing crackdown pull more viewers to its ad-supported plan, according to a report by Insider Intelligence, released earlier this week.

Official U.S. inventories due

Oil prices edged higher Wednesday, rebounding after the previous session’s sharp losses on oversupply and demand growth concerns ahead of the conclusion of the latest Fed meeting.

By 06:45 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.2% higher at $68.73 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.2% to $73.75 a barrel. Both benchmarks dropped more than 3% on Tuesday to six-month lows.

Data from the industry body American Petroleum Institute showed that U.S. oil inventories fell by a bigger-than-expected margin in the week to Dec. 8. But the potential draw comes on the heels of several consecutive weeks of strong builds.

The official inventory data, from the Energy Information Administration, is due later in the day.

Additionally, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,998.05/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0781.

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