07:14 AM EDT, 09/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity futures were tracking in the green before Thursday's opening bell as traders digest the Federal Reserve's decision to ease its monetary policy by 50 basis points.

Standard & Poor's 500 advanced 1.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.1% and the Nasdaq rose 2% in premarket activity. Asian exchanges and European bourses were pointing higher.

The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday reduced interest rates to a range of 4.75% to 5%, versus a Bloomberg-compiled consensus indicating a 5%-to-5.25% range.

"This decision reflects our growing confidence that, with an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strength in the labor market can be maintained in a context of moderate growth and inflation moving sustainably down to 2%," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a Wednesday press conference after the FOMC meeting.

On Thursday's economic calendar, the weekly jobless claims bulletin, the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index for September and the second-quarter current account deficit report all post at 8:30 am ET. The existing home sales report and the leading indicators index, both for August, are out at 10 am, followed by the weekly EIA domestic natural-gas supplies report at 10:30 am.

Shares of Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained 3.2% pre-bell while Tesla (TSLA) and Meta Platforms ( META ) inclined 2.9% and 2.1%, respectively. Steelcase ( SCS ) dropped 7.9% as the office furniture manufacturer's international orders fell during the fiscal second quarter.

Darden Restaurants ( DRI ) , FactSet Research Systems ( FDS ) and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store ( CBRL ) report their latest financial results before the bell, among others. FedEx ( FDX ) and Lennar ( LEN ) post earnings after markets close.

Before the open, bitcoin traded up 3.6% at $62,450, West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased 0.9% to $71.53 a barrel, 10-year US Treasuries moved 1.7 basis points higher to 3.7% and gold was up 0.7% to $2,615 an ounce.