WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the steep drop seen over the course of the previous session, stocks are likely to move back to the upside in early trading on Wednesday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a higher open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by 51 points.
The upward momentum on Wall Street comes as comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have generated optimism about a potential U.S.-China trade deal.
Ahead of the highly anticipated G20 meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mnuchin told CNBC the U.S. and China had nearly completed a deal before talks broke down last month.
'We were about 90 percent of the way there and I think there's a path to complete this,' Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC's Hadley Gamble but did not shed any light on the sticking points to achieving the final 10 percent.
Mnuchin refused to speculate on whether a deal would be completed but said he was 'hopeful,' noting 'President Trump and President Xi have a very close working relationship.'
Stocks futures remained positive after a report from the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed another steep drop in durable goods orders in the month of May.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders tumbled by 1.3 percent in May after plunging by a revised 2.8 percent in April.
The continued decrease surprised economists, who had expected durable goods orders to rise by 0.2 percent compared to the 2.1 percent slump originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, excluding another nosedive in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders rose by 0.3 percent in May after edging down by 0.1 percent in April. Economists had expected a 0.1 percent uptick.
After moving modestly lower early in the session, stocks saw further downside over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The S&P 500 closed lower for the third straight session after ending last Thursday's trading at a record closing high.
The major averages finished the session just off their worst levels of the day. The Dow slid 179.32 points or 0.7 percent to 26,548.22, the Nasdaq plunged 120.98 points or 1.5 percent to 7,884.72 and the S&P 500 tumbled 27.97 points or 1 percent to 2,917.38.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.5 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index edged down by 0.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside over the course of the session. While the German DAX Index has risen by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index are both up by 0.1 percent.
In commodities trading, crude oil futures are jumping $1.18 to $59.01 a barrel after edging down $0.07 to $57.83 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, after inching up $0.50 to $1,418.70 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are sliding $4.20 to $1,414.50 an ounce.
On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 107.66 yen compared to the 107.20 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Tuesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1358 compared to yesterday's $1.1367.
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