Futures flat with all eyes on Fed meet; Brent tops $65

[December 12, 2017]   

By Rama Venkat Raman

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open flat on Tuesday ahead of a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve that is widely expected to bump up the benchmark interest rate for the third time in a year as it continues to unwind its post-crisis stimulus.

Investors will look for the Fed's rate projections and the assessment of the health of the economy.

A fairly upbeat November U.S. payrolls report showed strength in job growth, but average hourly earnings rose less-than-expected.

The central bank has forecast three rate hikes in 2018, but sluggish wage growth and inflation that has run below the Fed's forecast has raised doubts that it might be too fast in raising interest rates.

Brent crude rose above $65 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 as an unplanned shutdown of the UK's biggest North Sea oil pipeline supported a market already tightened by OPEC-led production cuts. [O/R]

Shares of oil majors Exxon <XOM.N>, Chevron <CVX.N> and Schlumberger <SLB.N> rose by between 0.28 percent and 0.65 percent in premarket trading.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Boeing <BA.N> shares rose 1.53 percent after the company said it would raise its quarterly dividend by 20 percent and replace its existing share buyback program with a new $18 billion authorization.

Comcast shares <CMCSA.O> were up about 1.85 percent after the company said it had abandoned its bid for most of the assets of Twenty-First Century Fox <FOXA.O>, leaving Walt Disney <DIS.N> as the sole suitor of the $40 billion-plus deal. Disney shares rose 0.72 percent.

The Labor Department will likely report that its producer price index for final demand rose 0.3 percent in November, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent in the previous month. The report is due at 08:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT).

Wall Street indexes closed higher on Monday and the biggest drivers were technology and energy sectors.

(Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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