US pre-open: Stocks seen muted ahead of FOMC minutes

US futures pointed to a muted open on Wall Street on Wednesday as investors awaited the release of the latest Federal Reserve minutes for clues on the timing of the next rate hike.

At 1130 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq futures were up 0.1%, while S&P futures were flat.

Meanwhile, oil prices were just a touch higher ahead of the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate was up 0.2% to $51.57 a barrel and Brent crude was 0.3% firmer at $54.33.

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "Traders have become increasingly convinced that we’ll see a rate hike in June, the second this year, but questions are being asked about where the Fed will go from there.

"A lot of the expectation in the final couple of months of the year came from the expectation that President Donald Trump would announce huge spending and tax reform plans but as of yet, that’s not happened."

Investors will be getting their first change to react to news Moody’s has downgraded China’s credit rating by one notch to A1 from Aa3, a move that was being largely shrugged off in European trading. The ratings agency - which also changed its outlook on China to stable from negative - said the downgrade reflects expectations that the country’s financial strength would “erode somewhat over the coming years”.

Aside from the FOMC minutes, investors will eye the release of existing home sales at 1500 BST and speeches from Fed officials Robert Kaplan and Neel Kashkari.

On the corporate front, Bunge was weaker in pre-market trade on news that Glencore has approached the grain trader about a potential takeover.

Shares in retailer Lowe's tumbled in pre-market trade after its first-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations, but chip maker Nvidia was on the front foot following a report that Japan's SoftBank has racked up a $4bn stake in the company.