NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock futures are rising at the end of a wild month in the stock market.
Many investors were encouraged after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting, released on Tuesday, showed that central bank officials discussed a range of options to boost the economy, including buying more Treasury bonds.
The Fed has purchased Treasury bonds twice in the past to keep interest rates low. That motivates investors to shift money out of bonds and into stocks.
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About 30 minutes before the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are up 116 points, or 1 percent, at 11,602. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures are up 13, or 1.1 percent, at 1,218. Nasdaq 100 futures are up 21, or 0.9 percent, at 2,248.
Investors are awaiting an update on factory orders, due out at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Economists predict that stronger demand for airplanes and automobiles pushed orders up 1.8 percent in July. Orders fell 0.8 percent in June because of supply disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
A separate report from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing showed that private employers added 91,000 jobs in August, less than the 100,000 jobs that economists were expecting. The report isn't always an accurate predictor of the Labor Department's monthly unemployment report, which will be released Friday.
August has been volatile for investors. After S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating, the Dow had four consecutive days of 400-point swings. That's the first time that happened in its 115-year history. Traders worried about the health of European banks and the threat that the U.S. could slip back into another recession.
Since then, major indexes have recovered some of their losses. The S&P 500 hit a low for the year on Aug. 8, but it has since risen 8.4 percent. The Dow has risen for three days straight, and six out of the last seven.
Even so, the Dow and S&P are still set to have their worst months since May 2010. The Dow is down 4.8 percent in August, while the S&P 500 is down 6.1 percent.
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