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Fresh uncertainties stemming from the war in Ukraine also
weighed on sentiment. Russian forces shelled eastern and
southern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to reports, after
Washington said it saw signs Moscow was preparing to formally
annex territory it has seized during nearly five months of war.
Netflix Inc's shares jumped 6.4% premarket after it predicted it
would return to customer growth during the third quarter, while
posting a 1 million drop in subscribers in the second quarter.
The streaming service provider was the first among big-tech
firms to report quarterly results, raising hopes that they will
perform well despite a rocky global economic backdrop.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more
than 2% on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq index rose 3%, following
strong corporate earnings.
Nasdaq futures were flat on Wednesday.
"Futures were pointing to a higher opening trying to build on
yesterday's strong rally, however, they have since turned down a
little bit, so I suspect there's some profit taking," Peter
Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities
in New York.
"Once the earnings come in, if we see a repeat of yesterday
(good set of earnings) then I think this profit taking will be
short lived."
While Friday's upbeat data on retail sales and consumer
sentiment eased some concerns around the economy, fears of a
recession or a sharp slowdown remain as the U.S. Federal Reserve
raises interest rates to check inflation.
In this reporting season, analysts expect aggregate year-on-year
S&P 500 profit to grow 5.8%, down from the 6.8% estimate at the
start of the quarter, according to Refinitiv data.
A full cut-off of Russian gas flows to Europe is "a likely
scenario", European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
said on Wednesday.
Electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc gained 0.8% ahead of its
earnings report after market close, while shares of Apple Inc,
Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc added between 0.1% and
0.3%.
At 6:58 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 48 points, or 0.15%, S&P
500 e-minis were down 5.5 points, or 0.14%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis were down 5.25 points, or 0.04%.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Aniruddha Ghosh in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
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