Wall Street ticked slightly higher in early trading Wednesday after posting the first loss in eight days.
Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rose 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%.
The price of gold, which topped $4,000 per ounce for the first time on Tuesday, continued to rise, trading up nearly $53, or 1.3%, at $4,057.50.
Investors have traditionally seen gold as a hedge against high inflation.
Its price has soared more than 50% this year because of governments’ huge debt loads, political uncertainties and anticipation that the Fed will continue to trim its benchmark lending rate after cutting for the first time this year in September.
The minutes of that September meeting will be released today at 2 p.m. ET, which investors and analysts will scour for clues about how many more rate cuts could be coming this year. Most economists are expecting at least one more cut as the Fed tries to manage a weakening labor market and inflation that remains above its target of 2%.
Equifax gained 2.5% before the bell after the credit reporting agency slashed the price of its mortgage credit score product by more than 50% below competitor Fair Isaac's. Fair Isaac shares soared last week after it announced a program to streamline access to its FICO credit scores. Fair Isaac shares slid 3.7% before the bell Wednesday.
Artificial intelligence stocks are mixed as Bank of England warned Wednesday of the rising risk that tech stock share prices pumped up by the AI boom could face a “sudden correction.”
“On a number of measures, equity market valuations appear stretched, particularly for technology companies focused on Artificial Intelligence,” policymakers at the U.K. central bank said in a report. With Big Tech companies accounting for an increasingly outsize share of stock market indexes, stocks are “particularly exposed should expectations around the impact of AI become less optimistic.”
AI stocks have been on a tear this year. Chipmaker Nvidia is up nearly 40% since January, Oracle is up 70% and Palantir is up 140%. Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are all up sharply.
In Europe at midday the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.8% as departing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, aiming to calm the political storm triggered by his resignation on Monday less than 24 hours after unveiling his ministers, raced to beat a deadline Wednesday to break a deadlock caused by his decision to quit.
Germany's DAX rose 0.7%, while the FTSE 100 jumped 0.9%.
The U.S. dollar has risen against the euro, thanks to the upheavals in France, and also against the Japanese yen.
The yen has fallen sharply on expectations that Sanae Takaichi, the conservative lawmaker likely to become the next prime minister, will push to keep interest rates low.
The dollar rose to 152.70 yen from 151.90 yen early Wednesday, while the euro slipped to $1.1633 from $1.1659.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.5% to 47,734.99. It had jumped to new records earlier this week after the ruling Liberal Democrats chose Takaichi as their leader last weekend. She is expected to increase spending and to advocate for easier credit, possibly slowing efforts by the Bank of Japan to raise its key interest rate. It has remained near zero for years, even as inflation has exceeded its target of about 2%, outpacing wage increases.
The government reported Wednesday that inflation-adjusted wages fell in August for the eighth straight month.
“While the economic case for tighter monetary policy remains intact, we suspect that the Bank of Japan will use the pressure by Japan’s incoming government as an opportunity to delay rate hikes until January,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary.
Lawmakers in Japan's lower house of parliament are due to elect a successor to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba later this month. The Liberal Democrats hold the most seats despite not having an outright majority, so Takaishi is expected to become the country's first female prime minister.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.5% to 26,829.46 and the S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,947.60.
Markets in mainland China and South Korea were closed for holidays.
In Taiwan, the Taiex lost 0.5%. India's Sensex was up 0.1%.
Also early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 81 cents, or 1.3%, at $62.54 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 79 cents to $66.24 per barrel.
_____
AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan contributed to this report from London.
