Stock Futures Gain on Obama Jobs Plan

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open amid speculation that President Obama will inject $300 billion into the economy to spur jobs growth.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 101 points, or 100 points below fair value at 11,229. Futures for the S&P 500 were up 13 points, or 13 points below fair value, at 1178, and Nasdaq futures were up 22 points, or 20 points below fair value at 2187.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks had trimmed losses with the Dow finishing down some 100 points. Still, the S&P 500 took down it's worst first three days in September in history.

The positive tone Wednesday follows gains in the global market, where European stocks rallied in part due to a German court ruling upheld the country's involvement in bailing out its troubled neighbors.

The FTSE in London was last gaining close to 2% and the DAX in Frankfurt adding 2.8%. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.7% while Japan's Nikkei lost 2.01%

The outlook for President Obama's speech to Congress tomorrow evening helped Wall Street take a more optimistic view on jobs growth in the country. According to Bloomberg, Obama has a $300 billion package in the works that includes tax cuts, infrastructure spending and help for local governments. The dismal jobs picture has been weighing heavily on investors' minds since last week's unemployment report that showed no new jobs creation in August. After the debt ceiling fiasco in Washington, many are skeptical that lawmakers can come together with an effective strategy to revive the struggling economy.

Shares of Yahoo! were surging 6.9% in pre market trading after the company announced late Tuesday that its CFO Tim Morse would serve as an interim executive in replacement of CEO Carol Bartz.

In other corporate news, graphics chipmaker Nvidia(NVDA) projected a bullish revenue of $4.7 billion to $5 billion for fiscal 2013, starting in Jan. 30, 2013, compared to the current average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for a revenue of $4.45 billion in fiscal 2013. Shares of the chipmaker were gaining nearly 9% to $14.36.

The Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book report at 2 p.m. Investors will be scrutinizing the report in advance of the Fed's late September meeting, when the central bank may announce Operation Twist, or a monetary easing plan to attempt to help the economy.

As equities were set to move up, the appeal of safe havens decreased slightly. Gold for December delivery was slipping $32.30 to $1841 an ounce.

The October crude oil contract was gaining $1.11 cents to $87.13 a barrel.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury was losing 10/32, pushing the yield to 2.012%. The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index slipping 0.31%.

-- Written by Chao Deng in New York.

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