US pre-open: Futures mixed ahead of Q1 bank earnings

Wall Street futures were mixed ahead of the bell on Wednesday as market participants awaited the first wave of Q1 corporate earnings later in the day.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.09%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.07% and 0.29% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 68.13 points lower on Tuesday after the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control recommended the use of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine be temporarily halted after six people out of the 7.0m who received the jab developed blood clots.

Corporate earnings will be firmly in focus on Wednesday, with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo all set to report before the opening bell.

IG's Joshua Mahony said: "The US economic recovery should help boost banks over the coming year, with the sectors pro-cyclical nature meaning that they outperform when monetary policy is tightening. Meanwhile, the apparent one-way direction for US indices will help investment banks in their bid to increase profitability.

"However, today's big headline could easily be centred around Goldman Sachs and just how much of a hit they suffered in the fallout of the Archegos Capital Management collapse last month."

On the macro front, last month's import/export price data will be released at 1330 BST, while the Federal Reserve's Beige Book will follow at 1900 BST.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will speak at 1700 BST, while presidents John Williams, Richard Clarida, Raphael Bostic and Robert Kaplan will also all deliver comments throughout the course of the day.

Coinbase was also drawing an amount of investor attention prior to the open, with the company's stock market debut viewed as a major milestone for the industry, while Pfizer was in the green ahead of the bell after the drugmaker said it could deliver 10% more vaccine doses to the US by the end of May than it had previously expected.