Investing.com– U.S. stock index futures traded in a muted fashion Wednesday, with investors digesting a deluge of corporate earnings ahead of more comments from Federal Reserve officials.
At 06:20 ET (10:20 GMT), rose 20 points, or 0.1%, traded largely flat, and dropped 5 points, or 0.1%.
The main Wall Street indices closed largely unchanged Tuesday as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach before a storm of key economic readings and earnings.
More Fed speakers on tap
Recent optimism over eventual interest rate cuts was dented by a string of Fed officials signaling that rates will remain steady in the near-term.
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said sticky inflation could keep interest rates unchanged for the rest of the year, even as markets began pricing in a greater chance of a September rate cut following weaker-than-expected data.
But while the labor market appeared to be cooling, inflation is still expected to remain a key point of contention for the Fed. data for April is due next week, anticipation of which also limited moves on Wall Street.
Additionally, there are more Fed officials to look forward to later Wednesday, with Vice Chair , Governor and Boston Fed President all due to speak.
There remains a great deal of uncertainty over when the Fed will start cutting interest rates, with officials generally resetting expectations for a later start and less overall policy easing this year.
Uber, Airbnb earnings on tap
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The first quarter earnings season is set to continue on Wednesday, with reports from Uber Technologies (NYSE:) and Airbnb (NASDAQ:) due.
Uber rose over 3% in premarket trade, as markets priced in potentially stronger earnings from the ridesharing giant, while itsrival LYFT (NASDAQ:) rose over 5% after posting a smaller loss in the March quarter.
Airbnb is also expected to report stronger revenues on a recovery in global travel demand.
Elsewhere, social media platform Reddit (NYSE:) surged nearly 15% premarket on stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings, as well as an upbeat second quarter outlook, in the company’s first earnings season as a publicly traded entity.
Online lending platform Upstart (NASDAQ:) sank 12% after it offered weak guidance for the current quarter.
Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:) sank nearly 5% after reporting a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss, while videogame maker Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:) fell over 3% on dismal earnings and guidance.
Uber, Airbnb earnings on tap
Crude prices retreated Wednesday as industry data showed an increase in U.S. crude inventories, a sign of weak demand in the world’s largest energy consumer.
By 06:20 ET, the futures traded 1% lower at $77.62 per barrel, while the Brent contract dropped 0.9% to $82.34 per barrel.
Data from the showed on Tuesday that U.S. oil inventories grew 0.5 million barrels in the week to May 3, coming in ahead of expectations for a draw of 1.4 million barrels.
Official U.S. government data on stockpiles from the are due later in the session.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
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