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* Aug. new home sales data due at 10:00 a.m. ET
* Nike set for record high after Q1 results beat
* Futures off: Dow 0.07%, S&P 0.07%, Nasdaq 0.13%
(Adds analyst comment, details, updates numbers)
By Sruthi Shankar and Ambar Warrick
Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set to open flat
on Wednesday as a move to launch an impeachment inquiry into
President Donald Trump unnerved investors, but a jump in shares
of Nike and tobacco companies helped dispel some gloom.
The news on probe, which pushed the S&P 500 .SPX to post
its biggest percentage drop in a month on Tuesday, worsened an
already fragile sentiment after Trump took a harsh tone about
China's trade practices, saying he would not accept a "bad
deal". "At the end, we closed off the day's lows, which tells me
that there isn't any panic in the market that would cause an
accelerated decline," said Peter Cardillo, chief market
economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
"Of course, the headline news regarding impeachment
investigation will be focused on, but I don't think that it's
going to have a real negative effect just yet."
Nike Inc NKE.N shares jumped 4.7% premarket, on course for
a record open and set to boost the Dow Jones Industrial Average
.DJI , after first-quarter results beat market expectations.
Retailer Foot Locker Inc FL.N gained 1%. Shares in Philip Morris PM.N surged 6.9% after the tobacco
company called off merger talks with Altria Group Inc MO.N and
said it would instead focus on the U.S. launch of its
tobacco-heating product, iQOS. Altria gained 2.1% on the news.
At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 18 points,
or 0.07%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 2 points, or 0.07%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 9.75 points, or 0.13%.
Chipmaker Broadcom Inc AVGO.O dropped 4% after it priced
an upsized offering of convertible preferred stock. Oil and gas explorers Marathon Oil Corp MRO.N and
Halliburton Co HAL.N fell about 1%, tracking declines in oil
prices on worries of weakening global demand.
Investors will now look to August new home sales data, due
at 10:00 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), to gauge domestic spending strength
ahead of the key holiday shopping season.