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Investing.com – U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Wednesday, with the technology-focused Nasdaq index likely to outperform on the back of impressive quarterly earnings from Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
At 7 AM ET (1200 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 30 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 30 points, or 0.7%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 210 points, or 1.4%.
The major Wall Street indices closed higher Tuesday, climbing for the third session in a row as investors turned their attention towards generally strong corporate earnings after January’s sharp selloff.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed more than 270 points, or 0.8%, higher, while the broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8%.
Alphabet reported a 32% jump in its fourth-quarter revenue, profiting from sustained high demand for its search, Cloud and YouTube services, while total revenue topped $75 billion, a new record.
The company also announced plans to split its stock 20-for-one, making it stock more affordable to a wider set of investors and potentially eligible for inclusion in more market indexes.
Staying in the tech sector, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) is also likely to be in focus after its annual revenue forecast beat expectations after the close Tuesday on strong quarterly demand for its semiconductors, despite global supply snags.
Meta Platforms, previously known as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), is due to release its fourth quarter numbers later Wednesday, and analysts will be listening to what it says about the outlook for ads.
Elsewhere, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) will also be in the spotlight after reporting numbers late Tuesday, while earnings from the likes of AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV), DR Horton (SA:D1HI34) and T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) will also be studied Wednesday.
The main release on the economic front comes in the form of the ADP private payroll report, at 8:15 AM ET (1315 GMT), which will be closely parsed for clues ahead of Friday’s government’s jobs report.
Private job growth is likely to have decelerated to 207,000 in January after recording its fastest pace in seven months in December, when it rose 807,000.
Oil prices stabilized Wednesday, ahead of the outcome of the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, to discuss future production levels.
A drop in U.S. stockpiles, suggesting continued demand in the world’s largest energy consumer, pushed crude prices towards seven-year highs late Tuesday.
The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said U.S. inventories fell by 1.65 million barrels last week, compared with an expected increase of 1.5 million barrels. The official U.S. inventory levels from the Energy Information Administration are due later in the session.
By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% higher at $88.25 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.2% to $89.00. Both benchmarks hit their highest levels since October 2014 at the end of last week.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,803.75/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.4% higher at 1.1315.
