07:19 AM EDT, 10/08/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The main US stock measures were trending higher in Wednesday's premarket activity as traders await minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% before the opening bell, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq rose 0.2% each. The indexes closed the previous trading session lower, with the S&P 500 snapping a seven-day winning streak.

The Fed is scheduled to post minutes of its last policy meeting at 2 pm ET, which will be assessed for fresh insight on the central bank's monetary policy. Last month, the Federal Open Market Committee reduced its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, noting increased downside risks to employment and signaling further policy easing later in 2025.

Treasury yields were down before the open, with the two-year rate retreating 0.6 basis points to 3.57% and the 10-year rate off 1.8 basis points to 4.11%.

The US government shutdown stretched into its eighth day on Wednesday, with the stoppage continuing to delay key economic data, including the August trade report, which was slated for a Tuesday release. A shutdown that lasts for five weeks would likely slow economic growth only moderately, but one that runs for a few months could lead to an economic contraction, Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a Tuesday report.

Wednesday's economic calendar also has the weekly mortgage applications bulletin at 7 am, followed by the weekly EIA domestic petroleum inventories report at 10:30 am.

Fed Governor Michael Barr is scheduled to speak at 9:30 am and later at 5:45 pm. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee are also due to speak today.

Shares of Nvidia ( NVDA ) rose 0.5% pre-bell amid media reports that the tech bellwether is investing up to $2 billion in a funding round for Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI. Oracle (ORCL) inched 0.1% lower following a 2.5% decrease at the close of Tuesday.

Penguin Solutions ( PENG ) dropped 20% as the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue below market estimates.

Gold inclined 1.6% to $4,067 per troy ounce in premarket action, after rising above $4,000 on Tuesday for the first time amid increasing global uncertainty. Gold prices are buoyed by investor hedging against economic and political risks amid expectations of more interest rate cuts from the Fed. In addition to the US government shutdown, political shakeups in France and Japan are fueling fiscal concerns, ING said in a report on Tuesday.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil advanced 1.4% to $62.58, while bitcoin gained 0.9% to $122,661.