US pre-open: Futures trade lower as market participants continue to digest FOMC minutes

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the opening bell on Thursday as investors continued to digest minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting.

As of 1220 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.88%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were trading 0.81% and 0.67% lower, respectively.

The Dow Jones closed 382.5 points lower on Wednesday following the publication of the minutes from the Fed's latest policy meeting.

The FOMC minutes revealed that the majority of the US central bank's top policymakers judged that the Federal Reserve would be able to slow its bond purchases later in 2021.

According to the minutes of the 27-28 July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, Fed officials thought they were now firmly on track to meet their inflation goal, while progress had been made on achieving full employment.

Several rate-setters believed that tapering would likely be more appropriate in 2022, the minutes showed. However, a number of Fed officials also aired their doubts regarding the medium-term trend for both prices and jobs, pointing out the possibility that they could undershoot the central bank's goals.

Also weighing on sentiment, Goldman Sachs cut its economic growth forecast for the current quarter from 9% to 5.5%, citing higher-than-expected inflation for the remainder of the year.

West Texas Intermediate slipped 2.6% to below $65 a barrel, while copper slipped 3.5% on concerns regarding global growth without the Fed's bond-buying support and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell more than three basis points to 1.24%.

On the macro front, jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be published at 1330 BST, as will the Philadelphia Fed's August manufacturing index, while July's Conference Board leading index will follow at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, Robinhood shares were firmly in the red after posting its first earnings report as a listed company, while Nvidia shares were in the green after the chipmakers quarterly earnings and revenue beat analysts' expectations on the back of strong graphic card sales.

On Thursday morning, US retailer Macy's posted second-quarter profits and revenues that topped expectations on the Street, with the group also moving to hike its outlook for 2021.