Investing.com - Wall Street futures were steady to higher on Thursday, as markets were digesting the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates for the first time in a year, although the move had been mostly priced in by markets.
The blue-chip Dow futures were up 0.20%, the S&P 500 futures added 0.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched 0.03% higher.
U.S. equities initially declined after the Fed concluded its policy meeting on Wednesday by raising interest rates by 25 basis points and projected three more rate hikes for 2017.
The health sector was expected to be in focus after Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said earlier in the week that it has dropped talks to buy Swiss pharmaceutical company Actelion Ltd (SIX:ATLN) because the deal price had gotten too high. Shares in Johnson & Johnson were up 0.16% in pre-market trade.
French drug giant Sanofi (PA:SASY) was now said to be in talks for a deal with Actelion.
The tech sector was also set to be in the spotlight after International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) Corp. announced plans to hire 25,000 workers over the next four years.
Meanwhile, energy stocks were likely to remain under pressure on Thursday, after OPEC said on Wednesday that member output rose in November, sparking fresh doubts over the Organization’s abitility to implement a recent agreement to curb production.
Later Thursday, the U.S. was set to publish the weekly report on jobless claims, as well as data on inflation and manufacturing activity in the New York and Philadelphia areas.