By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Wednesday, with the tech sector particularly hard hit after disappointing results from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), representing a weak start to the Big Tech earnings week.
At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 25 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 25 points, or 0.7%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 185 points, or 1.6%.
The main U.S. equity indices posted strong gains on Tuesday, extending their rally to the third straight day as bond yields fell on hopes the Federal Reserve could soon slow down the pace of its monetary policy tightening.
The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 330 points, or 1.1%, the broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.3%.
However, the tone is different ahead of Wednesday’s open, with Alphabet stock dropping over 6% premarket after the Google owner reported disappointing ad sales, sparking worries across the digital media sector, as advertisers cut back on their spending in the face of an economic slowdown.
Microsoft stock also fell 6% premarket after the software giant said revenue growth in its key Azure cloud-computing business will slow drastically in the current period from the prior quarter.
With these results in mind, and especially after Snap's (NYSE:SNAP) warning last week on slowing ad demand, investors cautiously await results from Facebook (NASDAQ:META) parent Meta Platforms, after the close, with analysts likely focused on what it says about digital advertising and its ambitions to build the metaverse.
Quarterly earnings results from the likes of Boeing (NYSE:BA), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) and Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) are due before the bell, while Skechers (NYSE:SKX), Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) are all seen trading sharply lower premarket after releasing results late Tuesday.
Economic data scheduled for later in the session include weekly mortgage applications, wholesale inventories and new home sales for September.
Oil prices edged higher Wednesday, helped by supply concerns and a weaker dollar, balancing out industry data indicating that U.S. crude stocks grew more than expected last week
Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed that U.S. crude inventories grew by 4.5 million barrels in the week to Oct. 21, more than expectations for a build of 200,000 barrels.
Traders will look towards the release of an official report from the Energy Information Administration later in the session for confirmation, as growing stocks suggest the slowdown in the world’s largest economy is hitting demand.
By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% higher at $85.65 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.1% to $91.84.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,673.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.6% higher at 1.0022.