Down beat economic news and the fact there’s no resolution in sight to the mounting global trade woes means that Wall Street is struggling to find much support as the week progresses. With the DOW having clocked up some significant losses on Tuesday, futures point towards a similarly disappointing start to Wednesday’s session with this morning’s unexpected jump in German unemployment adding to fears that a slowdown is looming.
It hasn’t all been negative from Europe this morning however with better than expected consumer confidence and spending readings giving some limited cause for cheer.
Economic data for the remainder of the session is looking thin on the ground so it could prove challenging for the market as it looks to shake off this glass half empty outlook unless there are some positive developments on the political front. Clearly the White House remains very much in focus over the next steps in terms of trade negotiations, but equally concern over political disarray in Europe could also be placated by some supportive messaging from Brussels.
Ahead of the open, the market is calling the Dow to start 136 points lower a 25212 – its lowest level in almost four months - and the S&P 500 15 points lower at 2787.