Stock futures ticked up on Wednesday, as investors held out hope that the Federal Reserve is done raising benchmark interest rates. Traders also tried to build on already strong gains for the month. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked higher by 132 points, or nearly 0.4%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures added about 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively. General Motors shares popped more than 7.2% in early morning trading after the company announced a $10 billion buyback. The automaker also raised its dividend and reinstated its guidance. The major averages notched modest gains Tuesday. The S&P 500 advanced 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite added about 0.3%. The Dow inched higher by 0.2%. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Tuesday that current monetary policy appears to be sufficiently restrictive to cool inflation back down to the central bank’s 2% target. The comments helped fuel investor optimism and buoyed stocks. “Markets are already far ahead of where Waller shifted the Fed to,” Vital Knowledge founder and president Adam Crisafulli said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday. “Now it’s just a question: Is the Fed going to start pushing back aggressively again about rate cuts that are expected for next year, and I think there’s a lot of important economic data we’ll get between now and the next meeting,” he added. “I think investors are just waiting to see clarity on that front.” Indeed, fed funds futures pricing suggests a chance that the central bank could cut rates as early as next spring, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. The major averages are on track for strong monthly gains. The S&P 500 and Dow are up 8.6% and 7.2%, respectively, in November. The Nasdaq had climbed 11.1%. On Wednesday, traders will have an eye out for second preliminary gross domestic product data for the third quarter, as well as the wholesale inventories report for October. On the earnings front, Hormel Foods and Dollar Tree are expected to issue quarterly results before the opening bell. Salesforce will post earnings after the close. U.S. Treasury yields fell on Wednesday as investors considered the outlook for interest rates and awaited fresh data that could provide hints about the state of the economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was 4 basis points lower at 4.296%. That marks the first time since September that the benchmark rate trades below 4.3%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last down by more than 3 basis points at 4.703%. The yield on the 2-year note had hit a low of 4.666%, marking the lowest level since July 18 when it yielded as low as 4.660%. Asia-Pacific markets were trading lower on Wednesday, led by Hong Kong markets, while China’s benchmark index closed at its lowest level in over a month as investors assessed earnings and comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve board members. Shares of Chinese food delivery giant Meituan plunged 12% after warning of a demand slowdown for its services in its third-quarter earnings call. Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo posted 94% revenue growth in the third quarter, far outpacing Alibaba’s 9% growth in the same period. The mainland Chinese CSI 300 index closed 0.86% lower at 3,488.31, falling to the lowest level since late October. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 2.47% in the final hour of trading, leading losses among major Asian benchmarks. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 extended gains from Tuesday and climbed 0.29% to close at 7,035.3. as the country’s overall inflation rate for October slowed to 4.8%, its lowest rate since January 2022. South Korea’s Kospi slipped marginally, finishing at 2,519.81 after hitting a two-month high on Tuesday, but the small-cap Kosdaq closed 0.73% up at 822.44. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.26% to end at 33,321.22, marking three straight days of losses, while the Topix was down 0.51% and closed at 2,364.5. Oil prices rose on Wednesday as investors turned their attention to an OPEC+ meeting to decide on output policy, while supply disruption caused by a storm in the Black Sea and lower U.S. inventories drove buying. Brent crude futures gained 86 cents, or 1%, at $82.54 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude futures climbed 98 cents, or 1.3%, to $77.40 a barrel. Gold prices edged lower on Wednesday due to a slight uptick in the dollar, although hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve would likely cut interest rates by the first half of next year kept bullion near a seven-month peak. Spot gold fell 0.04% to $2,040.06 per ounce, after hitting its highest since May 5. U.S. gold futures for December delivery fell 0.05% at $2,039.00 per ounce.