US stocks move higher as oil rebounds; Fed eyed

US stocks gains some traction and moved cautiously higher during opening hour of trade as investors brace for an imminent Fed rate-hike action, later during the day. 

Today's gains were followed by Tuesday's downbeat session, led by slump in oil prices. Hence, a modest rebound in oil prices, with WTI crude oil trading with gains of around 1.5%, has been supportive of the Wednesday's early up-move.

With the Fed rate-hike move already priced-in, the so-called dot plot that captures the policymakers' projections on future rate hikes, could still surprise the markets. Moreover, a further hawkish signal by the Fed Chair Janet Yellen, during the subsequent press conference, would act as a game changed for global financial markets.

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At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained over 40-points to 20,880, while the broader S&P 500 index added nearly 6-points to 2,370. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index underperformed the broader indices and stood near yesterday's closing level around 5,860.

Technical outlook

Carol Harmer, Founder at charmertradingacademy.com notes, “I think then we could have a good run up to the highs of 2395/2400...Here I would look to cover...I would only go back into longs if we can break 2405...and stay above it...so that is usually on the 2nd attempt...now if we can do this there is a good chance that the S&P can carry on higher and target 2425...weekly charts are off their high levels of overbought....dailies are at 34% meaning they can go higher...and to be fair we have eased a lot on the stochastics from 98% to 34% with very little movement to the downside...this tells me we are still in a strong uptrend in S&P and dips still to be bought.."