US stock futures rose on Wednesday following a muted day on Wall Street, as investors looked ahead to the latest batch of earnings and fresh signals on inflation and monetary policy.

S&P 500 futures (ES=F) added 0.5^%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) moved roughly 0.6% higher. Meanwhile, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) added 0.4% after the major US gauges closed Tuesday with modest gains.

Investors now turn their attention to the Federal Reserve’s January meeting minutes, due Wednesday, for additional insight into policymakers’ thinking. The week’s key macro event, however, arrives Friday with the release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures index.

Technology shares, particularly in software, could come back under pressure as investors continue to weigh the long-term impact of AI on business models and corporate competition.

On the corporate calendar, earnings from DoorDash (DASH), eBay (EBAY) and Analog Devices (ADI) are set for release Wednesday.

Japan has announced that it plans to invest up to $36 billion in US oil, gas, and critical mineral projects. This investment is part of Tokyo's $550 billion commitment, which forms part of the trade agreement it struck with President Trump last year.

“Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched!” Trump posted on Tuesday on social media. “The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS.”

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the projects will help build more resilient supply chains through partnerships in crucial areas for economic security.

Bloomberg News reports:

“We believe this initiative is fully aligned with its core objectives: promoting mutual benefits between Japan and the United States, ensuring economic security, and fostering economic growth,” she wrote.

The most significant investment is a natural gas facility in Ohio that’s expected to generate 9.2 gigawatts of power, according to a statement from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a massive project which Trump described as “the largest in History.”

Japan is expected to invest up to $33 billion in the gas plant, which will be led by SoftBank Group Corp. subsidiary SB Energy, according to a US Commerce Department fact sheet outlining the investments. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry listed SoftBank Group as the company involved in the project.

Read more here.

AP Finance reports:

California regulators said on Tuesday that Tesla (TSLA) had stopped misleading drivers about the safety of its cars and so has decided not to suspend its license to sell in the state for 30 days.

The decision by the California Department of Motor Vehicles comes after Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker was found by an administrative law judge last year to have misled drivers about the ability of Tesla cars to drive themselves in its use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving.”

The judge had recommended that regulators suspend Tesla's license to sell cars for 30 days, but the regulators gave the company a 90-day window to make changes. They decided it had done that sufficiently to fix the deceptive marketing.

Tesla now uses the term “supervised” in references to its Full Self Driving and has stopped using Autopiolot in its marketing in the state.

Read more here.