After two days of market declines, investors hoping for a rally this morning look set to be disappointed.
Yesterday, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 51 points to close at 16,280 and the broader-based S&P 500 fell four points to 1,939.
Spread betting quotes indicate the Dow will drop 120 points or so when it opens while the S&P 500 is tipped to start 15 points in the red.
Uncertainty over the Fed’s plans for US interest rates has kept the markets in a strait-jacket, according to Craig Erlam, an analyst at forex firm OANDA, though he highlighted that a speech later today from Fed chair Janet Yellen could remove some uncertainty.
He added: “Investors will be desperate for more insight into exactly how the Fed intends to return the central bank to normalized monetary policy including when we can expect that first rate hike and just how much emerging market volatility will impact the decision.
“As always, volatility can quite often spike when Yellen speaks especially at times of such uncertainty and confusion.”
Asian markets retreated overnight with the Nikkei 225 off 2.8% in Japan and the Hang Seng down 0.6% in Hong Kong.
The picture was not much better in Europe in that continent’s morning session with the DAX in Germany taking a hammering, as the Volkswagen crisis rumbles on, with the car maker’s boss, Martin Winterkorn falling on his sword.
Ahead of the start of trading today, book publisher Scholastic (NASDAQ:SCHL) is set to update the market, as is consultancy Accenture (NYSE:ACN).
Weekly jobless claims are out at 8.30 (EST) while new home sales figures for August will be released at 10.00.
There was not a lot of news from blue-chips after trading closed last night, aside from Microsoft (NASDQ:MSFT) dumping its Bing search engine as the default search tool in its Chinese version of the Internet Explorer browser and using Baidu’s far more popular (in Asia) offering instead.
Adhesives and sealants maker HB Fuller (NYSE:FUL) came unstuck in after-hours trading, slipping more than 7% after third quarter numbers came in short of market expectations, prompting the company to lower full-year guidance.
Biotechnology company Conatus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CNAT) extended its gains in after-hours trading, rising to US$7.45 after closing the regular session up 15.7% at US$5.74.
The company said on Wednesday that its Emricasan drug met primary end-points in a phase II trial on patients suffering with liver cirrhosis.