Futures steady as focus shifts to U.S.-North Korea summit

[June 11, 2018]   By Sruthi Shankar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Monday as investors looked past a divisive G7 meeting and focused on an action-packed week that includes a historic U.S.-North Korea summit.

Having left the meeting in Canada early, U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he was backing out of the joint communique torpedoed what appeared to be a fragile consensus on the trade dispute between Washington and its top allies.

"The mood in financial markets is relatively upbeat at the start of a very busy week, as investors shrug off the G7 meeting," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA in London, wrote in a note.

"While everyone will have hoped for a better outcome, I don't think anyone is surprised given Trump's views on trade and his combative approach to the country's allies on the issue."

At 7:24 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 2 points, or 0.01 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were down 1 points, or 0.04 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were down 1.25 points, or 0.02 percent.

The escalating clash over trade between Washington and some of its closest global partners cast a cloud over Trump's efforts to make history in nuclear talks in Singapore on Tuesday with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, one of America's bitterest foes.

Trump said the summit could "work out very nicely" as officials from both countries met to narrow differences on how to end a nuclear stand-off on the Korean peninsula.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Investors are also bracing for monetary policy changes, with three of the world's top central banks - the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan - set to meet this week.

The Fed is almost certain to raise rates again on Wednesday, inching closer to a neutral policy stance, while the ECB is likely to signal on Thursday that its 2.55 trillion euro bond purchase scheme will end this year, a key move in dismantling crisis-era stimulus.

Among stocks, insurer Genworth Financial's shares surged <GNW.N> 27.3 percent in premarket trading after a U.S. security panel approved China Oceanwide Holdings Group's purchase of the insurer.

Envision Healthcare <EVHC.N> slipped 2.5 percent after private equity firm KKR & Co <KKR.N> said it would take the physician services provider private in a deal valued at $5.57 billion.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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