US pre-open: Fed's Bullard, FOMC minutes ahead

Wall Street was set for a higher start on Wednesday, as traders waited on the latest government figures on the state of the housing market and a speech from the president of the St.Louis Fed, James Bullard, a ‘well-known’ interest rate hawk.

As of 13:10GMT futures on the Dow Jones Industrials were rising by 121.0 points to reach 16,252 points, while those for the S&P 500 ‘mini’ were trading up 15.75 points to 1,904.50.

Analog Devices and Dr.Pepper Snapple were the latest S&P 500 components to provide shareholders with quarterly updates on their financials, with both companies managing to surpass the analyst consensus.

Shares in travel comparison website Priceline Group soared in pre-market trading after beating its own guidance for sales in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The owner of the Booking.com website was also confident on its revenue prospects for the first three months of the year, telling investors to expect another period of solid bookings.

On the corporate front, the Commerce Department was scheduled to publish its figures on US housing starts and permits for the month of January, alongside data on factory gate inflation.

The minutes of the US central bank’s last policy meeting in January, were also set to be published at 19:00GMT.

Weekly oil stockpile data from the Energy Information Administration, which would usually be released at 15:30, were set to published on Thursday due to the public holiday on 15 February.

Ten-year US Treasury note yields were three basis points higher at 1.80%.