Following its day of mourning for former US President Bush, Wall Street collapsed overnight, pushing major US indices back to one week lows as fears escalated that the trade war with China was far from over.
The arrest of Huawei’s CFO whilst she was visiting Canada - and word that the US has now requested her extradition on spying charges - has rattled markets.
Although this event happened at the weekend, news only broke last night and it served to heap pressure on stocks globally. Asian markets recorded broad based losses, whilst Dow futures shed around 400 points in a matter of minutes following the announcement. Expect developments here to be closely followed.
There’s a slew of US economic data due for release in the hours ahead, with a series of numbers having been held over from Wednesday, too.
Composite PMI is expected to show a modest decline, but anything that looks more marked has the potential to rattle sentiment further. ADPPayrolls are also expected to show reasonably strong job creation, although at a pace that’s below recent highs.
The OPEC meeting is also due to take place today so that could inject some volatility into oil prices, especially if Saudi Arabia and Russia act in tandem.
Ahead of the open, we’re calling the Dow down 340 from Tuesday’s close at 24,687 and the S&P down 33 at 2667.