Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to strong gains at the open on Wednesday, with Dow futures rising by triple digits, as sentiment improved amid a global stock market rally.
During early morning hours in New York, the blue-chip Dow futures surged 191 points, or 1.16%, the S&P 500 futures jumped 21 points, or 1.05%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a gain of 55 points, or 1.26%.
On Tuesday, Wall Street rose 2%, inspired by a China-fueled rebound in global equities.
Asian equity markets rose sharply on Wednesday, as speculation surrounding possible stimulus measures in China and Japan boosted risk appetite.
The Shanghai Composite tacked on 2.3%, one day after posting a late rally to end up 3%, while Japan's blue-chip Nikkei stock index soared 7.7%, the biggest one-day gain since 2008.
The Asian rally came as China's finance ministry proposed a series of fresh measures to stimulate economic growth and after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated a pledge to lower the corporate tax rate.
The upbeat sentiment carried over to European markets, where Germany's DAX, France’s CAC 40 and London's FTSE 100 were all up almost 2% in afternoon trade.
At 10:00AM the Department of Labor will release its latest report on job openings in July amid ongoing uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates when it meets on September 16-17.
Last week's U.S. jobs report failed to provide much clarity on when the U.S. central bank will decide to raise short term interest rates. The timing of a Fed rate hike has been a constant source of debate in the markets in recent months.