U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony to Congress.
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony to Congress.
* Yellen will present her semi-annual monetary policy testimony before the House Financial Services Committee at 1000 ET.
* Fed Chair is expected to say that the Fed remains on a hawkish course of steadily rising rates. Any signals on how the bank is viewing a retreat in inflation and muted wage growth will be closely watched.
* The U.S. central bank issues its Beige Book at 2pm ET (1800 GMT), a compendium of anecdotes on the health of the economy, that will likely provide further evidence about the strength on the economy giving the Fed impetus to raise.
* The Fed’s next policy meeting is on July 25-26.
* U.S. stocks closed flat on Tuesday after clawing back from a fall as emails suggested Trump Jr. welcomed Russian help against Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.
* The dollar on Wednesday failed to recover from the damage suffered from Trump’s alleged links with Russia and held close to its lowest in more than a year against the euro.
* Investors are also keeping an eye on second-quarter earnings reports on Friday from big U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Wells Fargo (WFC.N) and Citigroup (C.N).
Futures snapshot at 6:57 a.m. ET (1057 GMT):
* Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 34 points, or 0.16 percent, with 14,193 contracts changing hands.
* S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 4.25 points, or 0.18 percent, with 83,248 contracts traded.
* Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 15.75 points, or 0.28 percent, on volume of 17,093 contracts.
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