Investing.com – U.S. futures were down on Wednesday as investors digested earnings results and look ahead to who the next Federal Reserve chair will be.
The S&P 500 futures fell two and a half points or 0.11% as of 6:47 AM ET (11:47 AM GMT) while Dow futures was down four points or 0.02%. Tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures decreased nine points or 0.15%.
Among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading was British American Tobacco (LON:BATS), which surged 3.56% after it said it was expanding its “next generation” products. Shares in investment service firm Icici Bank Limited ADR (NYSE:IBN) skyrocketed 8.16% after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) upgraded the company. Meanwhile IT firm Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) rose 2.81% after it reported that MoviePass saw a 30% increase in subscribers.
Restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) tanked 10.11% before the morning bell after its earnings came in much lower than expected. Semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) was also down 8.84% amid investor concerns about its future sales while financial firm Discover fell 1.91%.
In economic news, U.S. core durable goods comes out at 8:30 AM ET (1:30 PM GMT) while new home sales will be released at 10:00 AM ET (3:00 PM GMT).
Airline firm Boeing (NYSE:BA) and beverage firm Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) are expected to release their earnings before the morning bell, among others.
In other news, speculation continues about who United States President Donald Trump will nominate as the next Fed chair. On Tuesday Trump asked Senate Republicans who they thought should be the next chair, with Stanford University economist John Taylor allegedly the winner.
European stocks gained ground on Wednesday morning. Spain’s IBEX 35 surged 53 points or 0.52% and Germany’s DAX jumped 13 points or 0.10% while in France the CAC 40 was up 17 points or 0.32%. In London, the FTSE 100 fell two points or 0.04%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 rallied six points or 0.19%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.37% to $1,273.63 a troy ounce while crude oil futures were down 0.27% to $52.33 a barrel ahead of U.S. crude oil inventory data. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, decreased 0.12% to 93.72.