US pre-open: Stocks to bounce back as earnings roll in

Stocks on Wall Street looked set to bounce back from the previous day's losses on Wednesday despite lingering concerns about trade relations between the US and China, as earnings continued to roll in.

At 1225 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.6%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.4% and 0.5% higher, respectively.

The positive calls came despite reports late on Tuesday that the White House had cancelled a planned trade meeting this week with Chinese officials due to ongoing disagreements over intellectual property rules. The reports were later refuted by Trump's economic advisor Larry Kudlow, who also said that the end of month talks would still be taking place and would be "very, very important" and "determinative".

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "Promising trade talks has been a key driver of the rebound in markets over the last four weeks and if these talks are stalling and meetings are, in fact, being cancelled, investors may quickly lose confidence.

"Of course, other factors have also contributed to the improvement in risk appetite, including a more dovish and patient Fed, so I wouldn’t expect a dramatic drop off but the momentum could well be lost."

Meanwhile, the partial government shutdown entered its 33rd day. On Thursday, the Senate is expected to vote on two separate proposals that could end the shutdown if passed. The first is a Republican-backed measure that would meet Trump's demand for a $5.7bn Mexico border wall in exchange for temporary protection for young undocumented immigrants. The second would extend funding for the agencies currently closed until 8 February.

In corporate news, IBM was set to rally at the open after well-received quarterly numbers late on Tuesday. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $4.87 for the quarter, down 5% year-on-year but around 3 cents higher than most analyst forecasts.

Elsewhere, consumer goods group Procter & Gamble, telecoms company Comcast and United Technologies all racked up healthy gains in pre-market trade as their quarterly updates impressed.