Stock Futures Waver Ahead of Retail Sales Data

U.S. stock futures wavered on Wednesday, ahead of fresh data on January's retail sales and industrial production.

S&P 500 futures and contracts linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked down less than 0.1%. Changes in equity futures do not necessarily predict moves after the opening bell. The Dow edged up to close at a record on Tuesday.

U.S. retail sales data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. The figures are likely to show that there was a rebound in spending in January, economists forecast, fueled in part by the latest round of stimulus payments and improving data on the virus in the second half of the month.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasurys was largely unchanged from 1.298% on Tuesday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Overseas, European stocks fell Wednesday for a two-day losing streak. The Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.4%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 also shed 0.4%.

The Swiss franc, the euro and the British pound declined 0.3%, 0.1% and 0.1% respectively against the U.S. dollar.

In commodities, Brent crude rose 0.8% to $63.88 a barrel. Gold fell 0.8% to $1,784.70 a troy ounce.

In Asia, major indexes were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.1% after falling as much as 0.7% earlier. Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.6%.

-- An artificial-intelligence tool was used in creating this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 17, 2021 03:58 ET (08:58 GMT)

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