Dow futures fall 20 pts; Retail sales and Target earnings in focus By

By Peter Nurse

-- U.S. stocks are Forex Market Trading Timesseen opening higher Wednesday, adding to the previous session’s gains ahead of the release of more quarterly earnings from the retail sector as well as monthly retail sales data.

At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the contract was down 20 points or 0.1%, traded 3 points or 0.1% lower, and dropped 20 points or 0.2%.

The main stock indices closed higher Tuesday after for October showed cooling, stoking hopes the can shortly start to ease back on its pace of interest rate hikes.

The blue-chip closed 56 points or 0.2% higher, the broad-based climbed 0.9%, and the tech-heavy rose 1.5%.

The Fed is trying to tame inflation without tipping the U.S. economy into recession, and the latest factory prices data, coupled with last week’s release, point to the U.S. central bank hiking by 50 basis points in December. This would be a smaller rise than the four consecutive 0.75 percentage point increases it has already done this year.

Attention now turns to the reading for October, at 08:30 ET (13:30 GMT), to see how discretionary spending is holding up as consumers struggle with soaring prices. The month-to-month reading is expected to rise 1% after remaining flat the prior month.

This is a big week for retail earnings, too, which started with strong earnings from Walmart (NYSE:), as the retail giant lifted its annual sales and profit forecast as demand for groceries held up.

Lowe's (NYSE:) raised its full-year profit forecast Wednesday, encouraged by higher prices and steady demand for home improvement products, but (NYSE:) cut its fourth quarter outlook, after seeing sales slow in late October.

Chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:) is also expected to report quarterly earnings.

On the political front, investors are still assessing the latest developments following a fatal missile attack on a Polish village on the border with Ukraine, as well as former President Donald Trump's decision to enter the 2024 presidential race.

Oil prices stabilized Wednesday, following an unsubstantiated report that an oil tanker has been hit by a drone off the coast of Oman, potentially impacting supply in an already tight market.

The crude market had traded lower earlier Wednesday, following mixed U.S. inventories data from the . While crude inventories shrank almost 6 million barrels last week, far more than expected, grew around 1.7M barrels, suggesting waning demand from the biggest economy in the world.

Official data from the are due later in the session for confirmation.

By 07:00 ET, futures traded 0.2% lower at $86.72 a barrel, while the contract rose 0.1% to $93.94.

Additionally, rose 0.6% to $1,787.15/oz, while traded 0.7% higher at 1.0417.

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