US pre-open: Futures point to losses following Asian sell-off
Wall Street futures had stocks opening lower ahead of the bell on Thursday following a drop in Asian indices overnight.
As of 1255 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.54%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.56% and 1.20% lower, respectively.
The Dow closed 227.51 higher on Wednesday following positive results from early trials of a coronavirus vaccine and more quarterly earnings reports.
Weighing on sentiment before the open was news that Chinese stocks had seen their single largest one-day loss since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday amid a continued ratcheting up of tensions between Beijing and Washington appeared to dent appetite for stocks and riskier assets.
The White House was said to be contemplating a ban that would stop Chinese Communist Party members and their families from entering the US, according to The New York Times, while the administration stated it would also ban travel for employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei and other companies it sees as being complicit in helping Beijing abuse human rights.
The rise in tensions also overshadowed some solid economic data from China that showed second-quarter gross domestic product had expanded 3.2% year-on-year - topping consensus estimates for a reading of 2%.
Also in focus were more corporate earning from the US, with Johnson & Johnson shares edging higher after beating expectations and raising guidance, while Bank of America stocks dipped despite delivering results that topped estimates.
Twitter shares were also down in pre-market trading after several accounts were seemingly hacked as part of a coordinated social engineering attack aimed at siphoning bitcoins from followers.
On the macro front, June retail sales data, jobless claims figures and July's Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index will all be posted at 1330 BST, while May business inventory data and the NAHB's housing market index will follow at 1500 BST.