Equity Futures Anticipate New Trade Negotiations Between US and China By Reuters

By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) – US stock index futures plummeted on Tuesday as investors cautiously stepped into a shorter holiday week in anticipation of a new round of US-China trade talks .

Trade talks between the world's two largest economies will resume in Washington later in the day and will be followed by talks at a higher level on Thursday.

The hope that the two countries reach an agreement ending their long trade war has triggered a recovery of US stocks, and the Nasdaq Friday recording their best week in a month.

Both parties said progress has been made, but little detail has emerged from the discussions so far.

Vulnerable industrial companies at tariffs, such as Boeing (NYSE 🙂 Co dropped 0.3% and caterpillar Inc. (NYSE 🙂 0.1 percent in pre-market trade.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) said its quarterly outlook for world merchandise trade reached its lowest level in nine years, warning policymakers against further slowing if trade tensions worsened. persisted.

Shares of retailer Walmart (NYSE 🙂 Inc. climbed 4.6% after outperforming comparable sales for the quarter of vacations, up for the 18th straight quarter.

Walmart's results follow an extremely disappointing report released last week by the US Department of Commerce, according to which retail sales in the United States recorded their largest decline in more than nine years in December, fueling fears from an economic downturn.

At 7:19, ET, down 72 points, or 0.28%. were down 9 points, or 0.32% and down 20.5 points, or 0.29%.

Advance Auto Parts Inc. fell 2.9% after the company released a quarterly sales figure in line with Wall Street estimates.

Weight Watchers International Inc.'s weight management service provider's shares slid 5% after JP Morgan downgraded.

With nearly 80% of the S & P 500 companies reporting their results so far, analysts now see the group as a 16.2% increase in earnings for the fourth quarter, according to Refinitiv data.

However, the current quarter does not seem very optimistic: earnings are expected to fall by 0.5%, their first decline since a year since mid-2016.