Investing.com – U.S. futures were lower on Wednesday as traders trim bets on a comprehensive U.S.-China trade deal, while worries about China and money-laundering issues in Europe kept the tone negative overnight.
Markets are growing impatient for detail on the agreement that has been talked up by the U.S. side in particular, and China's cut to its growth target for this year has been an uncomfortable reminder of what could happen if the deal is short on substance. U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing for negotiators to reach a deal soon, concerned that drawing out the discussions could drag down the stock market, Bloomberg reported.
The S&P 500 futures fell 3 points or 0.14% as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures lost 40 points or 0.15% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down 5 points or 0.08%.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) slipped 0.9%, extending losses after CEO Larry Culp warned the company wouldn't generate positive cash flow in 2019 - despite agreeing to sell its biopharma unit to Danaher (NYSE:DHR) for over $21 billion. Semiconductor Micron (NASDAQ:MU) fell 0.4% while ING Group NV ADR (NYSE:ING) declined 4.3%.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 1.25% in premarket trading amid reports that one of its biggest shareholders doesn’t think Elon Musk needs to be CEO. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) inched up 0.09%, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gained 0.3% and Perrigo was up 0.4%.
Meanwhile, European banks were still underperforming after another report on Tuesday alleging collusion in handling illicit transactions out of Russia. The news dragged on ING Group (NYSE:ING), which only last year was forced into a wide-ranging and expensive settlement with Dutch prosecutors for compliance shortcomings.
In economic data news, the ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) private payrolls report is due at 8:15AM ET (13:15 GMT).
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.10% to $1,285.95 a troy ounce, while crude oil was down 0.71% to $56.16 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.04% at 96.83.