US pre-open: Futures trade lower following heavy losses in previous session

Wall Street futures were in the red again ahead of the bell on Wednesday as re-emerging recession fears led to heavy losses in the previous session.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.20%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.29% and 0.44% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed a whopping 626.15 points lower on Tuesday as traders returned from the Labor Day long weekend to fresh manufacturing data that seemingly indicated that US economic growth had slowed.

Scope Markets' Joshua Mahony said: "Recession fears hinder markets across the board. Notably, we have seen very few assets escape the ire of the market decline, with havens such as the dollar and precious metals also losing traction in response to the burgeoning recession fears.

"Yesterday’s ISM manufacturing PMI found itself at the centre of things once again this month, with a worst-case scenario of a deepening contraction in the sector tallying up with every higher price pressures. However, in manufacturing, we are talking about roughly 9% of the US economy and thus there will be a big focus on tomorrow's ISM services sector PMI as a more reliable gauge of economic growth."

On the macro front, US mortgage applications increased by 1.60% week-on-week in the seven days ended 30 August, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

Still to come, July goods trade balance figures will be published at 1330 BST, while monthly factory orders and JOLTS job openings figures for July will follow at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, Nvidia shares traded lower in pre-market after Bloomberg revealed that the US Justice Department had issued the chipmaker with subpoenas.

Elsewhere, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dollar Tree and Hewlett-Packard will all report earnings on Wednesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com