Stocks - U.S. Futures Inch up as Investors Await Fed Meeting

Investing.com - U.S. futures were slightly higher on Monday, with investors happy to wait for the Federal Reserve's policy meeting later in the week in the absence of other major news.

Tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gained 12 points or 0.2% by 6:49 AM ET (10:49 GMT), while Dow futures rose 115 points or 0.1% and S&P 500 futures was up 2 points or 0.1%.

While no rate cut is expected this week, traders have increased their expectations that the Fed will cut rates this year, as the U.S.'s trade dispute with China slows the economy and leaves inflation below target.

Illustrating the effects of the trade war, the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei said he expects the company’s sales to drop to $100 billion this year due to the White House banning American companies from doing business with it.

Many U.S. chipmakers and technology companies rely on Huawei for products and the ban is widely expected to have a negative impact on the sector. Chip giants including Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) are lobbying for the U.S. government to ease up on its restrictions on Huawei, Reuters reported.

Intel was up 1.1% in premarket trade, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) inched up 0.6% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) gained 0.4%.

Elsewhere, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) edged down 0.1%, while Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) fell 0.6%.

On the data front, the Empire State manufacturing data is released at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT) and the National Association of Home Builders housing index is due at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT).

In commodities, crude oil fell 0.7% to $52.17 a barrel after reaching an earlier high of $52.91. CFTC data showed the number of long speculative positions on oil had fallen to its lowest level since March last week after a seventh straight weekly drop. Gold futures slipped 0.6% to $1,337.15 a troy ounce while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 97.032.

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