US STOCKS-Wall St futures tick up as investors eye more data, geopolitics

Updates prices throughout

By Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan

Dec 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures advanced on Wednesday as investors awaited more economic data to gauge the path for monetary policy and monitored geopolitical tensions in Venezuela that sent oil prices higher.

Commentary from a number of influential Federal Reserve officials such as Governor Christopher Waller and New York President John Williams is expected later in the day that could offer more clarity on monetary policy.

U.S. equities had a volatile session on Tuesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 <.SPX> touching a three-week low after a key jobs report failed to offer enough clarity on the health of the labor market and analysts pointed to the likelihood of data distortion due to the recent government shutdown.

Traders held on to expectations for two 25-basis-point rate cuts next year, according to data compiled by LSEG, with the first one expected in June - a month after a new Fed Chair is likely to be appointed.

Reports said that White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett's candidacy for the role received pushback from those close to U.S. President Donald Trump and the investment community such as JPMorgan Chase's JPM.N Jamie Dimon and Citadel's Ken Griffin, given his strong support for interest rate cuts.

"The markets seem to be implying a likely short pause in the cutting cycle from the Fed, which aligns with the guidance the central bank provided last week," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

The next significant report will be Thursday's consumer inflation data by the Commerce Department.

At 7:08 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were up 95 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 24.5 points, or 0.36% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 113.5 points, or 0.45%.

Meanwhile, oil stocks including Halliburton HAL.N, SLB SLB.N and Occidental Petroleum OXY.N rose 1% each in premarket trading, tracking a 2% climb in crude prices as Trump ordered a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. The S&P 500's energy sector .SPNY marked its biggest daily drop since early April in the previous session.

Top gold miner Newmont NEM.N and U.S.-listed shares of Barrick Mining B.N climbed more than 1% each as gold prices rose, while silver miners jumped as the white metal topped $65 for the first time. The Global X Silver Miners ETF SIL.P climbed 1.8%.

With two weeks left for the year, Wall Street is set to log its third straight set of annual gains, buoyed by rate cut expectations and enthusiasm over artificial intelligence.

However, concerns over tech valuations have added an element of caution this quarter, reflected by the rotation into small caps and other areas of the market including healthcare .SPXHC and banks .SPXBK.

In the latest on who could take control of Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O, the media company's board rejected Paramount Skydance's PSKY.O $108.4 billion hostile bid, favoring Netflix's NFLX.O binding offer.

Netflix's shares rose 1.6%, while Paramount and Warner Bros' shares were down 1.9% and 1%, respectively.

Amazon.com AMZN.O gained 1.5% after reports that the company was in talks to invest about $10 billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Hut 8 HUT.O jumped 18.4% as the former cryptocurrency miner announced a $7 billion AI infrastructure partnership with Anthropic and Fluidstack.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

((johann.mcherian@thomsonreuters.com; Shashwat.Chauhan@thomsonreuters.com))