Dipo Olowookere
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a lower opening on Wednesday following the strong upward move seen in the previous session.
Traders may cash in on yesterday?s gains amid geopolitical concerns after President Donald Trump warned Russia ?get ready? for missiles being launched at Syria.
Stocks moved sharply higher during trading on Tuesday, adding to the modest gains posted in the previous session.
The major averages ended the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow jumped 428.90 points or 1.8 percent to 24,408.00, the Nasdaq soared 143.96 points or 2.1 percent to 7,094.30 and the S&P 500 surged up 43.71 points or 1.7 percent to 2,656.87.
The strength on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to comments from Chinese Xi Jinping regarding the trade dispute between China and the U.S.
Xi promised to lower import tariffs on products including cars and take other steps to further open the world’s second-largest economy.
On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices increase by more than expected in the month of March.
The Labor Department said its producer price index rose by 0.3 percent in March after edging up by 0.2 percent in February. Economists had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent.
Excluding food and energy prices, core producer prices also increased by 0.3 percent in March after rising by 0.2 percent in the previous month. Core prices had been expected to rise by 0.2 percent.
Energy stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, benefiting from a sharp increase by the price of crude oil.
Reflecting the strength in the energy sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index surged up by 5.4 percent, the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index jumped by 4 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index spiked by 2.9 percent.
Considerable strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 3.7 percent rally by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
Steel, semiconductor, and biotechnology stocks are also saw notable strength on the day amid broad based buying interest on Wall Street.
