Investing.com - U.S. futures jumped on Wednesday on reports that Hong Kong leaders have withdrawn a controversial extradition bill that sparked months of protests in the city.
Carrie Lam, head of Hong Kong’s legislative council, said on Wednesday that she will withdraw the bill that would have allowed Hong Kong citizens to be extradited to jurisdictions including mainland China. The withdrawal of the bill is one of five demands that protesters have made during three months of sometimes violent clashes between police and activists.
Nasdaq 100 futures rose 72 points or 1% by 6:40 AM ET (10:40 GMT), while Dow futures gained 185 points or 0.7% and S&P 500 futures were up 21 points or 0.7%.
Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) was among the top movers in premarket trade, jumping 2.5% after BMO Capital upgraded the gaming stock to outperform. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) all gained 1.1%, while United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) was up 2.4%.
Elsewhere, JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) fell 3.3% after it cut its third-quarter forecast for revenue per available seat mile.
On the economic front, trade figures for July come out at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT). Federal Reserve officials were also slated to speak before the news blackout ahead of its next meeting. New York Fed President John Williams is set to speak at 9:25 AM, while Michelle Bowman and James Bullard are at separate events at 12:30 PM. Minneapolis Fed President Neal Kaskhari speaks at 1 PM ET and Chicago Fed President Charles Charles Evans is at 3:15 PM.
In commodities, crude oil rose 1% to $54.48 a barrel. Gold futures were down 0.6% to $1,546.35 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.4% to 98.570.