Wall Street set to open higher as oil recovers

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - Wall Street looked set to open higher on Monday as oil prices bounced back from multi-week lows and investors expected the Federal Reserve to hold steady on interest rates at its meeting this week.

Oil prices rose about 1.3 percent after Venezuela said OPEC and non-OPEC producers were close to a deal to stabilize an oversupplied market. [O/R]

The Fed's two-day meeting starts on Tuesday in which policymakers will debate over the U.S. economy and its ability to absorb a rate hike. Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to conclude the meeting with a press conference at 2:00 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Wednesday.

 

Yellen said last month the case for a rate increase had strengthened. But recent lackluster data, including a slowdown in jobs growth, has raised doubts about the health of the economy.

"The market is resigned to the fact that the Fed won't move in September," said Matt Jones, head of U.S. equity strategy at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York. "But some uneasiness with the Fed will be on how they talk about December."

The probability of a December move shot up to 70 percent in the past month from 57.5 percent in the previous month, according to a Reuters poll of over 100 economists.

The CME Group's FedWatch tool shows traders setting a 12 percent chance of a rate hike by Wednesday, while the odds jumped to nearly 55 percent for December.

The dollar index fell 0.25 percent on dim prospects of a rate increase this week. [O/R]

Investors will also keep an eye on the Bank of Japan's policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, where it is largely expected to not announce further policy easing.

Dow e-minis were up 87 points at 8:29 a.m. ET, or 0.48 percent, with 18,128 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 10.25 points, or 0.48 percent, with 134,395 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 17.5 points, or 0.36 percent, on volume of 25,157 contracts.

Wall Street closed lower on Friday, capping a week of market oscillations, as financials were weighed down by the possibility of a $14 billion fine against Deutsche Bank and as investors second-guessed the Fed's intentions on rates.

Data expected on Monday includes a report on the U.S. housing market that is likely to show housing starts fell to a 1.19 million-unit rate in August from a 1.21 million-unit pace in the previous month. The report is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Shares of casino operator Isle of Capri jumped 28.5 percent in premarket trading on Monday after Eldorado Resorts said it would buy the company for $1.7 billion, including debt. Eldorado's stock dropped 22.7 percent.

Facebook edged 0.68 percent higher to $129.95 after Citigroup raised its price target.

U.S. electrical components distributor Avnet was up 8.4 percent at $42.5 after it announced the sale of its IT business to tech products distributor Tech Data Corp for about $2.6 billion. Tech Data's stock was up 7.1 percent.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)