U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday as investors await further U.S. data, earnings from leading blue-chips and the pricing of Twitter's much-anticipated initial public offering before the stock starts trading on Thursday.
U.S. stocks closed mainly down on Tuesday with Wall Street pausing after a two-session rise as data showed the U.S. services industry expanded more-than-expected in October offset softer economic headlines from Europe.
On Wednesday, however, European markets traded higher on earnings news while Asian markets traded mixed as investors awaited further direction from central banks in the U.K. and Europe.
In the U.S., investors are awaiting third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data due Thursday and non-farm payrolls data on Friday. Wednesday's economic reports include weekly mortgage applications, U.S. leading indicators—a composite gauge of future economic activity—and oil inventories.
In earnings news, Toyota reported record profits that sent its shares up more than 1 percent in premarket trading.
Earnings also are expected before the bell from Chesapeake Energy, Ralph Lauren and Time Warner and after the bell from Qualcomm, Activision Blizzard, CBS and WholeFoods.
Investors will be waiting until after the bell Wednesday for the pricing of Twitter's IPO. The offering is expected to price in a range of $23 to $25 per share, boosted from an earlier range of $17 to $20 per share. It intends to sell 70 million shares, an offering representing 13 percent of the company.
At the upper end of the new range, Twitter would raise as much as $1.75 billion and be valued as high as $13.6 billion.