US pre-open: Stocks seen higher as oil advances

US futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday as oil prices advanced, edging closer to the $50 a barrel level.

At 1150 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.3%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.4% firmer.

Meanwhile, the main European indices were all trading over 1% higher, underpinned by firmer oil prices, Greece’s breakthrough agreement with its international creditors and better-than-expected data on German business confidence from the Ifo Institute.

Athens agreed a deal to unlock €10.3bn in loans from its creditors in return for fiscal reforms.

At the same time, oil prices were heading towards the $50 a barrel mark after data from the American Petroleum Institute showed US crude stocks fell by 5.1m barrels last week to 536.8m, which was a much bigger drop than expected.

West Texas Intermediate was up 1.1% to $49.14 a barrel and Brent crude was 1.3% firmer at $49.21.

“Today is the turn of Fed’s Harker, Kashkari and Kaplan who are likely to continue this trend of talking up the potential for a rate hike in the coming meetings. June remains the less likely of the forthcoming meetings, yet much will be dependent upon next week’s jobs report, which will go a long way to making the committees mind up,” said IG’s Joshua Mahony.

Philadelphia Fed President Harker will give a speech on the economy and monetary policy, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is due to talk about the energy sector and Dallas Fed President Steven Kaplan will take part in a Q&A session.

In corporate news, Hewlett Packard rose sharply in pre-market trade after saying late on Tuesday that it will spin off its enterprise services business and merge it with Computer Sciences Corp.

Technology giant Microsoft was also in the black after announcing that it will axe 1,850 workers from its smartphone business.

On the data front, MBA mortgage applications are due at 1200 BST. FHFA home prices are at 1400 BST and Markit PMI services figures are at 1445 BST.