Wall Street shares are seen starting in the red as the new trading week begins, as traders await interest rate decisions on both side of the Pond.
Among stocks in focus ahead of the bell are food storage and container products giant Newell Brands Inc (NYSE:NWL), which surged 2.62% to US$29.41 after hours.
It emerged the group will appoint four directors to its board picked by billionaire investor Carl Icahn.
It comes just days after Icahn disclosed a 6.86% stake in Newell and said he could seek a board seat.
Also, in pre-market trade, Facebook shares (NYSE:FB.) are down 3.67% to US$178.30 after revelations at the weekend, involvimng analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.
The allegation is that the firm, which was hired by the Trump presidential campaign, obtained the date of around 50mln users of the social network without their consent.
Why is Mark Zuckerberg not having to answer publicly for the fact that @facebook ALLOWED Cambridge Analytica to access 50 million users info and target voters to sway an election...where is the accountability?
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) 19 March 2018
Geron Corporation (NASDAQ :GERN) gained over 26% to US$4.26 in pre-market deals after the group reported a fourth quarter loss of US$0.05 per share on sales of $191,000.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) shares nudged up 0.67% in pre-market to US$52.62 as the computer software giant is expected to post earnings of US $0.72 per share on revenues of US$9.78 billion after the closing bell.
Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) shares shed 1.40% to US$81.01 as the cryptocurrency e-mail mystery reportedly deepened. A key driver in the noise surrounding the current market drop in Bitcoin is an email, purportedly sent by the payments titan, advising account holders to “cease any activity that results in the trading or transfer of cryptocurrency".