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Futures down: Nasdaq 0.12%, S&P 0.05%, Dow 0.04%
June 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged lower on Wednesday in cautious trading ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's congressional testimony, while Tesla gained as Texas requires state-backed charging stations to include its plug.
Powell is due to deliver his semiannual monetary policy testimony at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), which will be scrutinized for clues on how long the central bank will keep its restrictive policy in place.
"Investors are taking some risk off the table as a precaution in case the Fed Chairman has his hawkish hat on (figuratively speaking) when testifying before Congress," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
"If Powell's remarks remind traders that two more rate hikes are expected by the Fed, this could sour the mood of the market."
In the previous session, Wall Street's main indexes fell as investors booked profits in the wake of a sustained market rally amid signs of weakening global demand. Still, the benchmark S&P 500 has advanced 14.3% so far this year.
Investors will also monitor other Fed policymakers including Cleveland Fed's Loretta Mester and Chicago Fed's Austan Goolsbee later in the day for more clues on Fed's monetary tightening path.
Money markets see a 79% chance of the Fed raising the benchmark rate in July by 25 basis points, the last one in rate hike cycle, as opposed to its signal of as much as 50 basis points hike in rest of the year, according to CMEGroup's Fedwatch tool.
At 5:35 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 2 points, or 0.05%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 17.75 points, or 0.12%.
Tesla Inc gained 1.3% premarket as Texas requires EV charging companies to include both Tesla's standard as well as the nationally recognized CCS if they want to be part of a state program to electrify highways using federal dollars.
Crypto shares including Coinbase, Riot Platforms , Marathon Digital and Bit Digital rose between 2.5% and 5.5% in premarket trading as Bitcon hit the highest level in six weeks.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers Li Auto, Nio Inc and Xpeng Inc added between 1.5% and 3.2% as China unveiled 520 billion yuan ($72.3 billion) worth of tax breaks to boost sales of EVs and other green cars over the next four years. (Reporting by Shubham Batra in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
