U.S. stock futures are slipping early Wednesday after Middle East tensions and the impact of Hurricane Helene set off worries and dragged the major indices in the previous session. These added concerns sapped risk appetite that was on the wane amid the overbought levels of the market, lingering economic uncertainties, and the looming presidential election and third-quarter reporting season. On Wednesday, traders may keep a close eye on ADP’s private payrolls report, often considered a precursor to Friday’s non-farm payrolls report, due ahead of the market open, as well as comments by Federal Reserve officials.
| Futures | Performance (+/-) |
| Nasdaq 100 | -0.27% |
| S&P 500 | -0.26% |
| Dow | -0.35% |
| R2K | -0.73% |
In premarket trading on Wednesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) moved down 0.17% to $567.63 and the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) slipped 0.16% to $480.48, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Cues From Last Session:
Wall Street pulled back sharply on Tuesday as traders reacted negatively to Iran’s missile attack on Israel, the start of a dockworkers’ strike that would handicap half of the country’s shipping and the impact of Hurricane Helene, which unleashed its fury over the Southeastern states. To make matters worse, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index contracted by more than expected.
On a positive note, job openings came in at a better-than-expected 8 million in August, the Labor Department said.
The averages opened lower and languished below the unchanged line throughout the session before closing sharply lower. All but energy, utility and communication services stocks, closed lower, with IT stock coming in for a sound thrashing.
| Index | Performance (+/) | Value |
| Nasdaq Composite | -1.53% | 17,910.36 |
| S&P 500 Index | +0.93% | 5,708.75 |
| Dow Industrials | -0.41% | 42,156.97 |
| Russell 2000 | +1.48% | 2,197.03 |
Insights From Analysts:
October is a seasonally strong month but it often starts slow before picking up momentum as the third-quarter earnings announcements begin to drop, said fund manager Louis Navellier. “I am expecting that the second half of October will be stronger than the first half,” he said. The fund manager expects fundamentally superior stocks to benefit from earnings surprises.
Further ahead into November, the next president would have been elected and the Fed will cut interest rates again, he said. He expects consumer sentiment to improve with most of the economic and political uncertainty removed.
See also: How To Trade Futures
Upcoming Economic Data:
Stocks In Focus:
Commodities, Bonds And Global Equity Markets:
Crude oil futures rose over 3% amid the Middle East tensions, while gold futures fell moderately. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) plunged over 3.75% and traded under $61.5K. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 2.1 points to 3.764%.
Most Asian markets that were open for trading ended lower amid the multiple downside triggers, although the Hong Kong market, which reopened after Tuesday’s public holiday, soared. The Chinese, Indian and Taiwanese markets remained closed for public holidays.
European stocks traded in the red in early trading.
Read Next:
Image Via Shutterstock
Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.