Investing.com - U.S. stock markets pointed to a marginally higher open on Wednesday morning, rebounding from the prior day's sharp sell-off, as a recovery in oil prices aided sentiment.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 16 points, or 0.09%, by 6:59AM ET (10:59GMT), the S&P 500 futures tacked on 2 points, or 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 10 points, or 0.2%.
U.S. stocks fell more than 1% on Tuesday, with energy shares slammed by lower oil prices and financials dropping on diminished prospects of a near-term rate hike.
Markets are pricing in just a 15% chance of a rate hike at the Federal Reserve's September 20-21 meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool. For December, odds stood at around 56%.
Investors looked ahead to a closely-watched U.S. retail sales report on Thursday, which is expected to shape the market's near-term interest rate expectations.
Meanwhile, oil prices edged higher as traders awaited fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products. U.S. crude was up 30 cents, or 0.65%, to $45.20 a barrel during morning hours in New York, while Brent rose 25 cents, or 0.5%, to $47.34.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 10:30AM ET (14:30GMT) amid analyst expectations for an increase of 3.8 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories increased by 1.4 million barrels in the week ended September 9.
In business news, German-based chemicals and healthcare group Bayer (DE:BAYGN) is poised to announce the acquisition of U.S. seeds company Monsanto (NYSE:MON) later on Wednesday for more than $66 billion, clinching the biggest deal of the year.
Shares in Monsanto were almost 2% higher in pre-market trade on the news, while Bayer climbed 2% in Frankfurt.
Elsewhere, European and U.K. stock markets drifted higher in choppy mid-morning trade Wednesday, as investors remained cautious over choppiness in the oil market.
Earlier, Asian shares closed mostly lower overnight, as jitters over central bank uncertainty dampened appetite for riskier assets.