ARNC Arconic Corporation

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

Fed's Beige Book to grab the spotlight

U.S. stock futures struggled for direction on Wednesday, with investors pausing for breath after pushing the S&P 500 and Dow industrials to fresh all-time highs.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 5 points, or less than 0.1%, to 18,269, while those for the S&P 500 index gained 1.20 points to 2,147. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index rose 6 points to 4,575.75.

The small moves come after another upbeat trading day on Wall Street on Tuesday, when the S&P and Dow both rose 0.7% to close at record highs, supported by a rally in energy shares and stronger-than-expected earnings from Alcoa Inc. (AA)

Economic news: With few prominent earnings on tap for Wednesday, attention is turning Federal Reserve news with the Beige Book survey of current economic conditions due at 2 p.m. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said the report could reinforce the view that the U.S. economy is doing well and "in so doing start to shift the dial in terms of the timing of a potential U.S. rate rise."

"While a July and September rate rise would seem out of the question given current global concerns a decent survey won't deter some Fed members from rattling the prospect of a rise in rates, even if they know they won't be able to deliver one," he said in a note.

On Tuesday, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard reiterated his view of only one rate increase until 2018, while Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said there's "not a huge urgency to raise rates because inflation is coming up low."

On Wednesday, Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan is due to appear at 9 a.m. Eastern Time at an event run by the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston.

At 6 p.m. Eastern, Philadelphia Fed President Harker will give a speech on the economic outlook at the 2016 World Class Summit in Philadelphia.

In other economic news on Wednesday, the import price index for June comes out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, while the Federal budget for the same month is due at 2 p.m.

Movers and shakers: Shares of Juno Therapeutics Inc.(JUNO) rallied 28% ahead of the bell after the drugmaker late Tuesday said it will resume a drug trial (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/juno-shares-jump-after-clinical-trial-of-cancer-treatment-resumed-2016-07-12) of a potential leukemia treatment. The trial had been placed on clinical hold last week following two patient deaths.

SemiLEDS Corp.(LEDS) tanked 26% premarket after the LED chips maker late Tuesday said third-quarter revenue slumped 18% and that is loss widened to $3.3 million.

After the market closes, Yum! Brands Inc.(YUM) is slated to report earnings.

Other markets: Asian stocks closed mostly higher, but were off intraday highs after the Japanese government denied it would use "helicopter money" (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-gain-but-off-highs-after-japan-says-no-helicopter-money-coming-2016-07-13) to boost the economy.

Europe's main stock benchmark rose for a fifth straight session (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-aiming-higher-for-a-fifth-consecutive-session-2016-07-13), getting closer to erasing its entire post-Brexit loss.

Oil prices slumped (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-prices-back-off-ahead-of-possible-supply-rise-2016-07-13), while gold inched higher. The dollar was down against (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-slips-after-japan-rules-out-helicopter-money-2016-07-13) other major currencies.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 13, 2016 06:03 ET (10:03 GMT)

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