(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Futures down: Dow 0.39%, S&P 0.38%, Nasdaq 0.45%
By Arjun Panchadar
Nov 13 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on
Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit new record
highs, as a lack of clarity on U.S.-China trade relations from
President Donald Trump and escalating tensions in Hong Kong
dampened risk appetite.
Trump on Tuesday dangled the prospect of completing an
initial trade deal with China "soon," but offered no new details
on negotiations, while also threatening to raise tariffs again
if the two sides did not reach an agreement. Trade-sensitive technology stocks had lifted the benchmark
S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC to all-time highs in the run
up to Trump's speech on Tuesday, but the indexes pulled back
slightly after his address at the Economic Club of New York.
Chipmakers, which get a sizeable chunk of sales from China,
fell in premarket trading. Nvidia Corp NVDA.O , Micron
Technology Inc MU.O , Intel Corp INTC.O and Advanced Micro
Devices Inc AMD.O shed between 0.3% and 0.8%.
Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.N fell 1.6% and
were set for their worst day in three weeks following reports
that the Chinese e-commerce giant planned to launch a Hong Kong
share sale to raise up to $13.4 billion as soon as Thursday.
Heightened tensions in Hong Kong also dulled sentiment after
police warned violence related to anti-government protests had
reached a deadly level and that the Asian financial hub had been
pushed to the "brink of a total breakdown". Wall Street's main indexes have set new highs this month on
the back of a strong corporate earnings season and hopes of a
trade deal with Beijing to end the damaging 16-month tariff war.
Investor attention now turns to testimony from Federal
Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on the domestic economy on Wednesday
and Thursday as well as fresh economic data, starting with the
consumer price index at 8:30 a.m. ET.
At 7:16 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 107 points,
or 0.39%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 11.75 points, or
0.38% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 37.25 points, or
0.45%.
Shares of SmileDirectClub Inc SDC.O slumped 8.7% as the
teeth alignment company posted a bigger quarterly loss and
pointed towards more losses for the year. Tech Data Corp TECD.O gained 4.2% after announcing private
equity Apollo Global Management APO.N would buy the U.S.
company in a deal valued at $5.4 billion. China's Luckin Coffee Inc LK.O rose 2.6% as the Starbucks
Corp SBUX.O rival reported a smaller-than-expected loss and
forecast fourth-quarter revenue above estimates. L4N27T2UK