With the rout in Chinese markets stabilizing after three days of mayhem following speculation that the Chinese “National Team” is set to start propping up the domestic market, on Wednesday stock-index futures rose along with European shares as investors digested a barrage of tech earnings earnings which saw Apple, Microsoft and Apple post $57 billion in combined profit, while Treasuries fell and the dollar was steady with traders reluctant to place large bets ahead of the outcome of the Federal Reserve meeting and Powell’s subsequent press conference at 2 p.m. EDT.

At 730 a.m. ET, S&P 500 e-minis were up 2.25 points, or 0.05% after falling as much as 0.3%, while Dow e-minis were down 54 points, or 0.18%. Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 led gains, rising 39.75 points, or 0.26%, as technology shares jumped in Europe, though Asian equities were weaker amid the market turbulence triggered by China’s regulatory clampdown.

“China and the Fed are the two key things for today,” said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia Pacific, at JPMorgan Asset Management.  Major questions were whether markets would stabilize as they processed the news out of China and whether the spread of the Delta variant posed a risk to growth in the United States and Europe, he added. “We are still trying to digest the news from China, what’s going to be new is how the Fed view the latest round of (COVID-19) infections and whether they need to readjust their view,” he said.

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