US pre-open: Stocks to drop ahead of G20 summit

US stocks looked set to drop at the open on Friday as investors eyed the G20 summit, with President Trump and China's Xi Jinping set to meet to discuss trade.

At 1220 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq futures were down 0.6% and S&P 500 futures were 0.5% lower.

All eyes will be on Trump and Xi Jinping when the G20 meeting gets underway in Argentina later, amid hopes they can come to a truce on trade.

David Cheetham, chief market analyst at XTB, said: "The consensus seems to feel that a breakthrough is unlikely but Trump prides himself on his self-proclaimed deal making abilities and may well look to broker an agreement especially considering the recent decline in the stock market which undermines his claims that the rally since he took office is a result of his policies."

Trump said on Thursday that he was "close to doing something with China" on trade but wasn't sure he wanted to. He made the remarks to reporters as he prepared to depart for the summit.

"Because what we have right now is billions and billions of dollars coming into the United States in the form of tariffs or taxes, so I really don't know," he said. "I will tell you that I think China wants to make a deal, I'm hoping to make it a deal but, frankly, I like the deal we have right now."

On the corporate front, Marriott International shares were down nearly 6% in pre-market trade after the company said a guest reservation database of its Starwood Hotel was breached, potentially exposing the data of about 500 million guests.

Elsewhere, LabCorp was in the red following the release of its full-year results, while video game retailer GameStop tumbled 11% after slashing its full-year earnings outlook.

On the macroeconomic calendar, the Chicago purchasing managers' index for November is due at 1445 GMT. It's expected to be have ticked up to 58.5 from 58.4 in October.