Futures are rising from the steepest drop in recent days
Stock futures are slightly higher in a bounce from one of the steepest drops we've seen in recent days.
Near 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 23 points, S&P 500 futures were up 2 points, and Nasdaq futures were up 6 points - all by about 0.1%.
The S&P 500 fell more than 1% on Tuesday. It had not rallied or fallen by that much in the prior 15 days, and that was the longest streak in 13 months. It dipped into negative territory for the year yesterday.
But we're back to mild action this morning across the board.
At 2 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its March policy meeting. Economists expect that they will reflect the Fed's insistence on raising rates slowly, even more than markets had anticipated before the meeting.
Fed presidents Kevin Kaplan, Loretta Mester and James Bullard are scheduled to speak today.
The dollar is rallying. The index that measures it against its major peers was up about 0.4% in early trading. It has been under pressure since last week when Fed chair Janet Yellen stressed the need to raise rates cautiously.
Crude oil is higher. West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York were up 3% and rose to as high as $37.12 per barrel ahead of the opening bell.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed that US oil inventories last week had the biggest drop of the year, by 4.3 million barrels. The Energy Information Administration will release its numbers later today.
Besides this and the minutes, there isn't really anything else on the data calendar.
In company news, Allergan confirmed it has scrapped its $160 billion merger with Pfizer because the Treasury Department came out swinging with new tax laws. Allergan shares were down 1% pre-market and Pfizer rose 1%.