Stock futures hit record highs amid retail earnings

Reuters via yahoo.com ^ | February 21, 2017 | Yashaswini Swamynathan

[John W]

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose to record intraday highs on Tuesday as oil prices surged and investors assessed earnings from top U.S. retailers.

WalMart's shares were up 1.5 percent at $70.42 in premarket trading after the world's largest brick-and-mortar retailer reported a higher-than-expected rise in comparable store sales.

Home Depot rose 1.63 percent to $145.33 after the home improvement store chain reported better-than-expected results and set a $15 billion buyback program.

Macy's is scheduled to report before the market opens.

Oil prices rose nearly 2 percent after OPEC said the group was hopeful of higher compliance with its deal to cut production.

Investors will keep an eye on comments from three Federal Reserve officials on Tuesday for more insight into the timing of the next rate hike.

The central bank will release the minutes of its latest policy meeting on Wednesday.

The dollar rose 0.5 percent after Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said on Sunday that she would be comfortable raising rates if the U.S. economy kept performing. Gold prices fell 0.6 percent.

[John W]

The economic news has been almost all good since November 8th and continues even stronger since January 20th. It’s obvious one big reason why although reporting of that will be hard to find or sarcastic in nature.