US pre-open: Stocks set for dip as trade talks kick-off again
Wall Street is being called to start the sesion lower as investors wait on fresh headlines out of the US-China trade talks which were set to resume later in the day, in Washington D.C..
As of 1354 GMT, futures on the Dow Jones mini were pointing 66.0 points lower to 25,822.0 and those for the S&P 500 mini contract were off by 8.75 points at 2,768.25.
Vying for investors' attention, US Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester told an audience that official short-term interest rates may need to move a "a bit higher", even as Wal Mart posted much stronger-than-expected domestic like-for-like sales for the quarter ended in January.
Previously, the discount retailing giant had guided towards a jump in its US LFLs of at least 3.0%.
For her part, Mester reportedly added that the central bank was neither "far behind or ahead of the curve" when it came to setting the optimal level for official short-term interest rates.
Reports of a possible terrorist attack in Cairo, Egypt, were likely also dampening investor sentiment.
Elsewhere on the corporate front, Stanley Black&Decker said it would book a $50.0m charge against its 2018 earnings per share linked to the bankruptcy of IPS Worldwide.
Cooper Tire&Co. pleased investors, announcing a better-than-expected adjusted quarterly EPS figure of $0.66 (consensus: $0.57), but the firm's $770.0m-worth of sales fell short of analysts' estimates.
Advanced Auto Parts on the other hand reported a smaller-than-expected increase in its fourth quarter same store sales of 3.4% (consensus: 3.6%) and offered weaker-than-expected guidance on sales for 2019.
On the economic calendar for later in the day, the National Association of Homebuilders was due to publish its housing market index for February at 1500 GMT.
US and Chinese officials were set to resume their negotiations, on Tuesday, with America's Treasury Secretary and Trade Representative set to meet Vice Premier, Liu He, at the end of the week, on Thursday and Friday.