US pre-open: Stocks largely unchanged ahead of reports on spending and home sales

US stock futures were poised to be largely unchanged on Wednesday following reports on personal spending and durable goods, among others.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was expected to open 17 points higher than Tuesday’s close, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were expected to open 2 and 8 points higher respectively.

With US markets closed on Thursday because of the Thanksgiving Day celebration, Wednesday's economic agenda was expected to be extremely busy. Data on the housing sector, consumer confidence and manufacturing in the Mid-West were all due out at 15:00.

Durable goods orders, a key indicator for trends in investment in the economy, rose unexpectedly by 0.4% on the month, while the core personal consumption index (CPI), the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, came in at 1.4% year-on-year, as expected, although the core measure ticked higher to 1.6% (consensus: 1.5%).

“Inflation has become a hot topic this year and is likely to continue to be in 2015, although the US seems to be suffering far less from low inflation than many of the other major nations,” said Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari UK.

“The latest reading is expected to pick up slightly from October’s 1.5% reading, which would be in keeping with the CPI and PPI inflation readings, both of which showed an improvement when released last week.”

Initial weekly jobless claims jumped by 21,000 to hit 313,000 (consensus: 298,000).

In corporate news, Hewlett-Packard slipped in pre-market trading after reporting fourth quarter sales that missed estimates, while Deere & Co slid back after revealing its 2015 profit will be $1.9bn rather than $2.2bn as originally estimated.

Hertz Global Holdings advanced, after Icahn Associates increased its stake in the car rental company to about 11% from 8.7% at the end of September.