Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Point Mostly Higher as Fed Meeting Begins; Oracle Shares Rise as Tech Giant Seen Involved in TikTok Deal

Stock futures pointed mostly higher Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated two-day meeting and the release of U.S retail sales data for August.

Futures associated with the tech-heavy Nasdaq and benchmark S&P 500 were up 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were little changed.

Wall Street is overwhelmingly confident that the Fed will lower borrowing costs for the first time this year when it concludes its policy meeting Wednesday. Traders are pricing in a 96% chance that central bankers will cut the rate by a quarter of a point, to 4.00%-4.25%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

Investors also will be paying attention to the release of U.S retail sales data for August, which comes amid signs that tariffs haven’t significantly weighed on consumer spending.

Oracle (ORCL) shares are surging more than 5% in premarket trading on expectations the tech giant would be involved in a deal that would allow Chinese-owned TikTok to avoid being banned in the U.S. Oracle chair and co-founder Larry Ellison has close ties to President Donald Trump.

Tesla (TSLA) shares are rising a further 1.5% after a 3.6% advance Monday after a regulatory filing showed CEO Elon Musk bought $1 billion of stock, which was seen as a demonstration of Musk’s commitment to the electric vehicle maker. Tesla’s board recently proposed awarding Musk a pay package that could top $1 trillion.

Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) are up about 1% premarket following yesterday’s 4.5% surge that pushed its market capitalization above $3 trillion, making it the fourth company to achieve the milestone.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which affects borrowing costs on a variety of consumer and commercial loans, is flat at 4.04%. Gold futures are trading at an all-time high of around $3,730. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, is ticking higher at $63.40. Bitcoin is little changed at around $115,300. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, is down 0.3% to 97.06.