US pre-open: Futures in the green following heavy sell-off

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Wednesday following a heavy sell-off in the previous session.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.87%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.61% and 0.41% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed a mammoth 809.28 points lower on Tuesday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped further into bear market territory and hit a fresh 52-week low.

In the corporate space, tech behemoth Microsoft posted third-quarter earnings that beat expectations overnight and also sounded an optimistic tone when discussing its outlook for the current quarter, while Google parent company Alphabet reported a 23% uptick in Q1 earnings but said net profits had actually dropped to $16.4bn as YouTube advertising slowed.

Also in focus, Robinhood shares were in the red prior to the open after the retail brokerage warned that it would be cutting back on staff due to "duplicate roles and job functions".

Turning to Wednesday's earnings, Spotify said nearly all of its key metrics surpassed guidance in Q1, with total revenues increasing 24% to €2.66bn, while Kraft-Heinz beat on earnings and raised its full-year outlook.

Still to come, Ford will update during the session and Meta Platforms, Qualcomm, PayPal and Hertz will all publish their latest set of quarterly earnings after the close.

On the macro front, mortgage applications fell 8.3% in the week ended 22 April, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, marking a seventh-straight week of declines amid increased mortgage rates.

An advance reading of March's goods trade balance will be released at 1330 BST, as will last month's retail inventories data, while March pending home sales will follow at 1500 BST.