Wall street set to open higher as investors go bargain hunting

U.S. stocks were set to open higher on Tuesday as investors picked up beaten-down stocks following a turbulent two weeks while awaiting the annual central bankers meeting in Jackson Hole later this week.

The benchmark S&P 500 index.SPX ended slightly higher on Monday, after two days of declines.

The S&P has tumbled 2.1 percent in the last two weeks – the biggest two-week drop since the U.S. elections – on concerns over President Donald Trump’s ability to legislate his pro-growth agenda. Still, the index is up 13.5 percent since the election.

The central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, starts Thursday, with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen scheduled to speak on Friday.

Yellen’s speech will be closely watched for a steer on U.S. monetary policy, given persistently low inflation, but central bank observers do not expect her to give new guidance.

“The market is in a little bit of a wait-and-see mode as we go into Jackson Hole at the end of the week,” said Lindsey Bell, investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.

“A lot of people are waiting to see what Yellen has to say, especially with regard to inflation and how that might signal the Fed’s thinking on the next interest rate hike, if we can still expect something for December.”

At 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT), Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 61 points, or 0.28 percent, with 28,005 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 7.5 points, or 0.31 percent, with 192,893 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 31.75 points, or 0.55 percent, on volume of 41,352 contracts.

Among stocks, Coty (COTY.N) fell 7.57 percent to $18.07 in premarket trading after the beauty products maker reported a surprise quarterly loss.

Toll Brothers (TOL.N) was off more than 2 percent after the luxury homebuilder posted a revenue miss and tempered its gross margin forecast.

Medtronic (MDT.N) fell about 2.35 percent to $81.30 as the medical device maker posted lower-than-expected revenue.

A Deutsche Bank upgrade to “buy” pushed VMWare (VMW.N) up 2.05 percent to $99.01.