US stocks were firm on Wednesday as investors braced for the release of the US consumer inflation report for August which could help determine the scale of expected interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve (Fed) next week.
The percentage of market expectations is now 66% for a 25 basis point rate cut, with a 34% chance still seen for a larger 50 basis point reduction, according to the CME FedWatch indicator.
Investors are also closely monitoring the first debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump today.
In regular trading on Tuesday, the Dow fell 0.23%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 0.45% and 0.84%, respectively.
The real estate and technology sectors outperformed the market, while the energy and financial sectors were the only decliners.
Oracle jumped 11.4% after beating earnings estimates and securing a deal with Amazon Web Services.
Meanwhile, GameStop fell 10.4% as the company amended its open market sales agreement filed with the US SEC.
