US pre-open: Losses set to continue with earnings and trade fears still in focus
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Thursday 18 Jul 2019
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures had stocks opening lower yet again as earnings and trade fears continue to weigh on market sentiment.
As of 1230 BST, Dow futures were down 0.15%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track to open 0.10% and 0.25% weaker, respectively.
The Dow closed 115.78 lower on Wednesday, extending the previous day's declines after comments from Donald Trump put a halt to a historic rally.
Trump triggered concerns about the state of negotiations with China earlier in the week when he said the pair still had "a long way to go" before settling their trade dispute, brandishing again the threat of trade tariffs on an additional $325bn-worth of Chinese exports.
"We have a long way to go as far as tariffs where China is concerned, if we want. We have another $325bn we can put a tariff on, if we want," he said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the cause of the stalemate in negotiations was the US' restrictions on Chinese telco equipment giant Huawei.
With earnings season in full swing, AxiTrader's James Hughes said: "Earnings season may have looked a little brighter at the start of the week, but sentiment soured yesterday after a run of disappointing news."
However, Hughes added that although the Dow may have "given back a couple of hundred points this week", given the "generally effervescent" state of the market, the analyst felt this was "unlikely to prove much cause for concern yet".
Still on the corporate front, another landslide of earnings was due on Thursday - with Honeywell, Morgan Stanley, Union Pacific, SunTrust, M&T Bank and Microsoft all reporting.
In terms of data, the Philadelphia Fed's business outlook for July and this week's initial jobless claims will be posted at 1330 BST.
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