US Stock Futures Suggest Higher Open; Data On Payrolls, Factory Orders And Comments From Federal Reserve Officials Could Influence Markets

Following three days of mostly upward movement on the bourses, stocks look set to reach up further while data on payrolls and factory orders should hold investors' attention, which will also be trained on comments from Federal Reserve officials scheduled to speak during the day.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.16 percent while futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.13 percent and those on the Nasdaq were up 0.23 percent. On Tuesday, the Dow rose 0.46 percent while the S&P 500 climbed 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq shot up 1.64 percent.

The ADP private payroll employment report for March is due at 8:15 a.m. EDT while data on factory orders in February are due at 10 a.m. According to MarketWatch, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart and St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard -- neither of whom are voting members on the Fed's policy committee -- are expected to speak at 12:55 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively.

In Europe, markets were up slightly with the Stoxx Europe 600 index trading up 0.27 percent while the FTSE 100 was up 0.26 percent. Germany’s DAX-30 was up 0.29 percent while France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei-225 ended the day up 1.04 percent while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.26 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.34 percent while the Shanghai Composite climbed 0.56 percent. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.26 percent and India’s BSE Sensex ended the day up 0.47 percent.