US STOCKS-Futures inch higher with oil prices

By Yashaswini Swamynathan
Reuters

* Futures up: Dow 16 pts, S&P 3 pts, Nasdaq 10.25 pts

Sept 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures treaded water on Wednesday, after a broad selloff a day earlier, as oil prices recovered.

* Rising bond yields, sparked in part by deepening worries over the difficulty of the world's major central banks to stimulate growth, also kept investors in broadly risk-off mode.

* Crude prices rose 0.53 percent after a smaller-than-expected build in U.S. crude stockpiles. A 3 percent slide in crude prices on Tuesday weighed heavily on Wall Street.

* The dollar index dipped after a report said the Bank of Japan is considering further monetary easing steps. Gold prices rose.

* The markets are also awaiting the Federal Reserve's policy-setting meeting next week.

* Traders have set a meager 15 percent chance of a rate hike at the meet, after contrasting views by Fed officials in the past few weeks, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

* A Labor Department report is expected to show import prices edged lower in August, while export prices likely inched up. The data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).

* Monsanto rose 1.6 percent to $107.85 in heavy premarket trading after Bayer agreed to buy the seed maker for $128 per share.

* Department store chain Macy's rose 1.7 percent to $35.27 after Citigroup upgraded the stock to "buy."

* Sarepta surged 15.2 percent to $29.48 after Oppenheimer said an FDA decision was imminent on the drugmaker's highly anticipated Duchenne muscular drug.

Futures snapshot at 7:12 a.m. ET:

* Dow e-minis were up 16 points, or 0.09 percent, with 6,187 contracts changing hands.

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 3 points, or 0.14 percent, with 95,225 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10.25 points, or 0.22 percent, on volume of 4,509 contracts. (Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

09/14/2016 7:21