Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a small rise at the open on Wednesday morning, as investors took positions ahead of an expected roll-out of the Trump administration's plan for tax cuts.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to unveil his tax reform plan during a speech in Indianapolis at 3:00PM ET (1900GMT).
The plan has been developed over several months by six White House and congressional Republicans working behind closed doors and with no input from Democrats.
Republicans, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress have been unable to deliver a significant legislative win on any topic since Trump took office in January.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 3 points, or around 0.1%, by 6:30AM ET (1030GMT), the S&P 500 futures added 2 points, or about 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures added 9 points, or roughly 0.2%.
Wall Street ended mostly flat on Tuesday, but the tech sector pushed higher after four sessions of declines.
On the data front, Wednesday's calendar includes August durable goods orders at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT). At 10AM ET, the U.S. will release a report on pending home sales.
Besides the data, the Fed is keeping itself in the market's sights, with several officials scheduled to speak during the day.
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is due to give opening remarks at a conference at his bank at 9:15AM ET (1315GMT), and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard is on tap to speak at Missouri’s Truman State University at 1:30PM ET (1730GMT).
Later on, Fed Governor Lael Brainard is scheduled to take part in a Kansas City Fed forum at 2PM ET (1800GMT), and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren is slated to talk at New York University at 7PM ET.
Odds for a December rate hike mounted after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the central bank needs to continue gradual rate hikes despite broad uncertainty about the path of inflation.
Interest rate futures are now pricing in about an 80% chance of a December Fed rate hike according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, up from under 40% just a few weeks ago.
Among active pre-market movers, Nike (NYSE:NKE)'s shares dropped around 3% after the sneakers giant late Tuesday posted fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat forecasts, but its revenue was slightly below expectations.
On the upside, shares of Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) rose around 3% after the company posted better-than-expected fourth quarter results and guidance that exceeded estimates.
Meanwhile, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) is set to have an up-day following the company's announcement that it is testing out 280-character tweets, double the current max.
Elsewhere, European stocks climbed to a 10-week high, led by gains for Alstom (PA:ALSO) and Siemens (DE:SIEGn) after the two agreed to merge their rail operations. Earlier, in Asia, markets ended on a mixed note.
In currencies, the dollar built on the prior session's gains to reach a one-month high against the other major currencies, boosted by the Fed's hawkish rate hike outlook.
Looking to commodities, oil prices were stuck in a holding pattern, as investors looked ahead to the Energy Department's weekly supply report at 10:30AM ET (1430GMT).