Wall Street Steady Pre-Bell, Europe Up, Asia Higher

Wall Street was mostly steady pre-bell Wednesday with broad-market futures hewing to Tuesday's closes, although the Nasdaq was pointing higher. Traders were weighing the outlook for market averages after Tuesday's hefty gains, but also fading concerns regarding the omicron variant of COVID-19.

In the futures, the S&P 500 rose 0.1%, the Nasdaq inclined 0.2% and the Dow Jones was off 0.1% before the start of trading.

Asian exchanges traded mostly higher overnight although Hong Kong was flat on renewed property- and tech-sector softness, while European bourses edged higher midday on the continent.

Campbell Soup CPB, Thor Industries THO and United Natural Foods UNFI plan to report earnings pre-bell, among others.

On the economic calendar is the weekly MBA's index of mortgage applications at 7 am ET.

The Labor Department's October Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) will be released at 10 am, and sure to be parsed for clues to the nation's tight labor markets.

The EIA's weekly report on domestic petroleum inventories posts at 10:30 am.

In pre-market action, bitcoin traded at $49,346, West Texas Intermediate crude oil traded lower at $71.56, and 10-year US Treasuries offered 1.43%. Gold traded for $1,792 an ounce.