Stocks May Open Roughly Flat Following Recent Gains - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After moving notably higher over the past few sessions, stocks may show a lack of direction in early trading on Wednesday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by just 5 points.

Traders may look to take a breather following the recent upward move, which helped to lift the major averages well off the multi-month lows set last week.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have closed higher for four consecutive sessions, although they remain well off their mid-September highs.

Uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets may keep traders on the sidelines as they continue to digest the latest batch of earnings news.

On the economic front, the Labor Department recently released a report showing a modest increase in consumer prices in the month of September.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index edged up by 0.1 percent in September following a 0.2 percent drop in August. The modest uptick came as a surprise to economists, who had expected prices to come in unchanged.

Excluding food and energy prices, the core consumer price index also inched up by 0.1 percent in September after coming in unchanged in the previous month. The increase matched economist estimates.

Among individual stocks, shares of Yahoo! (YHOO) are moving sharply higher in pre-market trading after the online media giant reported third quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates.

Wireless chipmaker Broadcom (BRCM) is also likely to see early strength after reporting better than expected third quarter earnings and revenues.

Meanwhile, shares of Cree (CREE) are likely to come under pressure after the LED manufacturer reported first quarter results that missed estimates and provided disappointing second quarter guidance.

Stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, extending the recovery from the sell-off seen in recent weeks.

The major averages all posted substantial gains on the day. The Dow surged up 215.14 points or 1.3 percent to 16,614.81, the Nasdaq soared 103.40 points or 2.4 percent to 4,419.48 and the S&P 500 jumped 37.27 points or 2 percent to 1,941.28.