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U.S. equity futures nudged lower Wednesday, while Treasury yields and the dollar held steady, as investors weighed the impact of another sell off in China markets while eyeing the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's September policy meeting later in the session.
Stocks ended firmly higher on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 rising just under 1% and bounceback in megacap tech stocks adding 1.45% to the Nasdaq, as risk sentiment improved heading into the start of the third quarter earnings season, Treasury yields edged modestly lower and oil prices recorded a sharp session pullback.
Sentiment heading into the Wednesday session, however, is likely to be affected by reports of the Department of Justice's plans to ask a federal judge to force Google parent Alphabet ( GOOGL ) to sell parts of its search business in what would be the biggest tech breakup in U.S. history.
Shares in the tech giant were marked 1.3% lower in premarket trading while Apple ( AAPL ) , another DoJ target, fell 0.23%.
On the bond side, Treasury yields were holding firm, with 10-year notes trading just north of 4% ahead of a $39 billion auction of new notes later in the session and the release of minutes from the Fed's September rate cut discussions early this afternoon.
Two more Fed officials, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and vice chair Philip Jefferson, are also due to make public remarks today as traders continue to tweak bets on the central bank's November rate decision. At present, the CME Group's FedWatch pegs the odds of a smaller 25 basis point rate cut at around 87%.
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Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contacts tied to the S&P 500 suggest a modest 5 point opening bell decline, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is called 40 points lower.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, meanwhile, is priced for a 40 point decline with Google's pullback offset by gains for Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) .
Boeing ( BA ) shares were also active, falling 1.5% in premarket to $152.32 each after talks between the planemaker, union officials representing around 30,000 workers and a federal mediator broke down last night, extending the longest strike since 2008.
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In overseas markets, a sharply selloff in China stocks weighed on sentiment in Europe, but gains have been improving with the Stoxx 600 rising just 0.18% in early Frankfurt trading and Britain's FTSE 100 up 0.55% in London.
China stocks suffered their biggest decline since the Covid pandemic, however, and snapped a 10-day winning streak as investors dumped stocks amid a lack of detail from government officials over its plans to boost the domestic economy with new spending and rate cuts.
The region-wide MSCI ex-Japan benchmark was last marked 0.41% lower heading into the close of trading, while a weaker yen and the follow-on from last night's gains on Wall Street lifted the Nikkei 225 0.87% higher in Tokyo.
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