By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - U.S. stocks futures were trading slightly higher in early APAC Deals on Wednesday after major benchmark indices retreated during regular trade, with fresh inflation data continuing to show a sharp rise in prices, while Federal Reserve policymakers are expected to announce a more rapid transition away from its easy policies after its meeting later in the session, setting the stage for the first interest rate hike next year.
During Tuesday's regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 106.77 points, or 0.30%, to 35,544.18, the Nasdaq Composite shed 175.64 points or 1.14% to 15,237.64. The S&P 500 slid 34.88 points or 0.75% to close at 4,634.09.
Dow Jones 30 Futures were up 0.06%, S&P 500 Futures gained 0.09% and Nasdaq 100 Futures were up 0.14%.
Among stocks, major tech companies closed lower with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) down 0.28%, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) falling 3.26%, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) closing 0.22% lower, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) down 0.56%, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shedding 0.8%, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) dipping 1.32% and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) losing 6.6%.
EV stocks closed mixed with Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) down 0.82% and Rivian Automotive Inc (NASDAQ:RIVN) falling 1.48% while Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ:LCID) lifted 4.39%.
Travel related stocks also fell as Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) and United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) lost 0.92%, 1.23%, and 0.86% respectively, while Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) fell 1.7%, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) lost 1.21% and Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG) dipped 1.14%.
On the bond markets, United States 10-Year yields were at 1.441%.
Among data, the November reading for the producer price index showing a year-over-year increase of 9.6%, the fastest pace on record and beating market expectations of a 9.2% rise. Investors are also anticipating that the Fed will speed up the wind-down of its bond buying program, changing the end date to March from June after the two-day meeting concludes. Meantime, November’s retail sales data is set to be released later in the session, amid expectations of a 0.8% gain in November compared to October’s growth of 1.7%.