U.S. Stocks May Move To The Upside In Early Trading

(RTTNews) - Following the mixed performance seen in the previous session, stocks are likely to move to the upside in early trading on Wednesday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.3 percent.

Technology stocks may help lead an early upward move on Wall Street, as reflected by the 0.6 percent advance by the Nasdaq 100 futures.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are surging by 6.5 percent in pre-market trading after CEO Lisa Su predicted the chipmaker's annual revenue growth will average more than 35 percent over the next three to five years.

Su also said that AMD could be able to achieve "double-digit" share in the data center AI chip market that is currently dominated by Nvidia (NVDA).

Shares of Nvidia are also seeing significant pre-market strength after a steep drop by the AI darling weighed on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.

The upward momentum on Wall Street also comes as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on a bill ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

After the Senate voted Monday to approve the bill extending funding for most agencies until January 30th, the House is set to vote on the legislation later this evening.

Following the rally seen to start the week, the major U.S. stock indexes moved in starkly opposite directions during trading on Tuesday.

While the Dow extended the strong upward move seen on Monday and the S&P 500 recovered from early weakness, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped back to the downside.

The Dow jumped 559.33 points or 1.2 percent to finish at 47,927.96 and the S&P 500 rose 14.18 points or 0.2 percent to end at 6,846.61, but the Nasdaq fell 58.87 points or 0.3 percent to close at 23,468.30.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.4 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, European stocks have moved mostly higher on the day. The French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are both by 1.3 percent, although the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is nearly unchanged.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are slumping $0.85 to $60.19 a barrel after jumping $0.91 to $61.04 a barrel on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an ounce of gold is trading at $4,135.20, up $18.90 compared to the previous session's close of $4,116.30. On Tuesday, gold edged down $5.70.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 154.96 yen compared to the 154.15 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Tuesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1567 compared to yesterday's $1.1580.