US pre-open: Futures in the green as indices attempt to reclaim record highs

Wall Street futures had stocks opening higher ahead of the bell on Wednesday as major indices looked set to attempt to reclaim some of their record highs in one of the final sessions of the year.

As of 1235 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.30%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.35% and 0.38% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 68.30 points lower on Tuesday after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked Democratic Party efforts to push through a bill that would increase stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000.

Donald Trump has voiced his support for higher payments, stating that "$600 IS NOT ENOUGH!" as the number of new Covid-19 cases continues to rise across the US.

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "The US futures are trading higher but not by a huge margin as the major US indices broke their five consecutive days of gains. There was no doubt that the US stock indices went too far and too fast, and a correction was imminent.

"The Dow Jones futures pierced the upper line of the Bollinger band, but now the price has moved within the Bollinger, which means that the Dow price is less volatile, for now."

As far as the pandemic itself is concerned, the United States has now recorded more than 19.97m total cases of the coronavirus, claiming the lives of more than 346,579 Americans in the process.

The US has also confirmed its first case of the "new" faster spreading strain that led British prime minister Boris Johnson to effectively "cancel" Christmas in the UK.

Also in focus from across the pond was news that Britain had given the green light to the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca's covid vaccine.

On the macro front, mortgage applications data will be released shortly, while an advance reading of November's goods trade balance will be published at 1330 GMT, as will wholesale inventories figures for last month, and the Chicago purchasing manager's index for December and pending home sales numbers for November will follow at 1345 GMT and 1500 GMT, respectively.