US index futures had held relatively steady overnight, but news shortly ahead of the European session that the US – North Korea summit had broken down without a conclusion served to unsettle markets, at least a little.
The bigger impact may have been felt across pockets of Asia where Korea’s KOSPI closed almost 2% lower on the news, but at least for now Wall Street seems to be taking the news largely in its stride. Dow futures have already rebounded off earlier lows, drawing a line under this bout of selling – at least for now.
Shortly ahead of the opening bell the US Q4 GDP reading us due for publication and this can expect to be closely followed. Expectations have already been dialled down here but the influential Atlanta Fed forecast is now showing just 1.8%. That in itself may rock sentiment, but without doubt anything much below that level will lead to fresh questions at the Fed. However, given Jerome Powell’s stoic outlook earlier this week, that may be sufficient to quell any fears there’s a shock coming in the short term, although with fresh questions being asked over progress in those China trade talks, there’s still plenty of reason to be cautious.
Ahead of the open we’re calling the Dow down 55 at 25930 and the S&P 500 down 7 at 2785.