Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to a volatile day for stocks on Wednesday as markets entered their fourth day of tumultuous trading.
The S&P 500 futures fell 17 points or 0.63% to 2,677.25 as of 6:46 AM ET (11:46 GMT) while Dow futures decreased 125 points or 0.50% to 24,675.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down 37 points or 0.56% to 6,616.75.
U.S. indexes were swinging sharply yesterday after two days of sell-offs. The Dow started off lower, but rallied to close up 567.02 points at 24,912.77.
The market sell off started on Friday, after better than expected wage increases sparked concerns over increased interest rates. Some analysts have argued that the market swings are merely a market correction rather than a crash.
Investors will be paying close attention to comments from Federal Reserve board members after Tuesday’s market swings. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan will be in Germany, appearing at a Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS) working lunch, while San Francisco Fed President John Williams is scheduled to speak in Honolulu, Hawaii. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will be at the Iowa Bankers Association Bank Management conference in Des Moines, Iowa, while New York Fed President William Dudley will speak at an event in New York.
On the earnings front, Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS),Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOX) and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), and Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) are just a few of the major firms expected to publish their fourth quarter results on Wednesday.
Tesla was down 0.29% in pre-market trading, while Deutsche bank fell 5.15% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) slipped 0.71%. Semiconductor Micron decreased 1.32% and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) B PLC (NYSE:RDSb) company slumped 1.03%.
Meanwhile Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) surged 23.77% after it beat earnings estimates while Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) rose 2.26%.
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 48 points or 0.39% while in France the CAC 40 increased 16 points or 0.33% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 44 points or 0.62%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 16 points or 0.48% while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up 28 points or 0.29%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.09% to $1,330.70 a troy ounce while crude oil futures were down 0.25% to $63.23 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.19% to 89.69.