U.S. stock futures are higher in pre-market trading for Thursday, February 01. The Dow Futures are trading at 26,146.00 for up with +0.04% percent or +10.00 point. The S&P 500 Futures are trading at 2,832.00 for up with +0.22% percent or +6.25 point.The Nasdaq Futures are trading at 6,970.25  for up with +0.11% percent or +8.00 point.

In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere,Japan’s Nikkei 225 are trading at 23,486.11  for up with +1.68% percent or +387.82 point. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng are trading at 32,642.09   with a loss of -0.75% percent or -245.18 point. China’s Shanghai Composite are trading at 3,446.98  with a loss of -0.97% percent or -33.85 point. India’s BSE Sensex are trading at 36,178.55 for up with  +0.59% percent or  +213.53  point at 12:15 PM.The FTSE 100 are trading at 7,543.08  for up with +0.13% percent or  +9.53 point. Germany’s DAX are trading at 13,232.55 for up with +0.33% percent or  +43.07 point. France’s CAC 40 are trading at 5,502.97  for up with +0.38% percent or +21.05 point. The Stoxx Europe 600 are trading at 397.04 for up with +0.40% percent or +1.64 point.

Thursday’s Factors and Events

U.S. stock index futures moved higher Thursday morning after the Dow and the S&P 500 registered their best month since March 2016.

On Wednesday, the Dow ended January 5.6 percent up, while the S&P 500 rose 5.8 percent in the same period. Nonetheless, the session was affected by comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve that sent interest rates higher.

The Fed decided to leave interest rates unchanged, but said it expects inflation to move “up this year and to stabilize” around its 2 percent target. As a result, bond yields rose during the session as traders grow confident that the Fed might step up the pace of policy normalization.

Wednesday’s Activity

U.S. market were higher on Wednesday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 26,149.39 for up with +0.28% percent or +72.50 point. The S&P 500 closed at 2,823.81 for up with +0.05% percent or  +1.38 point. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 7,411.48 for up with +0.12% percent or +9.00 point.

Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,574.98  with a loss of –0.49% percent or -7.83  point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 959.39   with a loss of -0.54%  percent or -5.22  point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 1,953.97 with  a loss of -0.18% percent or -3.49 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,251.42  with  a loss of -0.04% percent or -0.51 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,664.68   with  0.00% percent or  -0.07 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,561.66 for up  with +0.04% percent or  -+0.55 point; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index closed at 26,149.39  for up with   +0.28% percent or  +72.50  point.