US pre-open: Futures trade lower amid ongoing inflationary concerns

Wall Street futures were in the red yet again on Wednesday amid ongoing economic fears regarding inflation and the outlook for global economic growth.

As of 1215 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.25%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.48% and 0.93% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 125.82 points lower on Tuesday and the S&P 500 hit a fresh low for 2022.

In focus ahead of the bell was news from the Bank of England that it will buy long-dated UK government bonds as part of an effort to stabilise the pound after the currency dropped to a record low against the dollar of $1.03. Sterling was changing hands at $1.0672 early on Wednesday.

Also drawing an amount of investor attention, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note topped 4% for the first time since 2010, while the yield on its two-year counterpart was at 4.2953%.

On the macro front, US mortgage applications fell 3.7% week-on-week in the seven days ended 23 September after rising 3.8% in the previous week as interest rates continued to increase. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications to refinance a home loan dropped 10.9% and applications to purchase a home dipped 0.4%.

Still to come, an advance reading of August's goods trade balance will be published at 1330 BST and last month's pending homes data will be released at 1500 BST.

A number of central bankers will also deliver speeches on Wednesday, with Raphael Bostic, James Bullard, and chairman Jerome Powell speaking at 1335 BST, 1510 BST, and 1515 BST, respectively.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Wednesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com