Futures Pointing To Continued Weakness On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Following the sell-off seen in the previous session, stocks are likely to see some further downside in early trading on Friday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a lower open for the markets, with the Dow futures down by 74 points.

Concerns about the outlook for the global economy may continue to weigh on the markets after contributing to the substantial weakness seen on Thursday.

Adding to the worries, the Chinese markets showed another steep decline overnight, with the Shanghai Composite Index plunging by 4.3 percent.

The weakness among Chinese stocks came as a report from Markit and Caixin showed that manufacturing activity in China slid to a six-year low in August.

The report said the preliminary reading on Chinese manufacturing activity dropped to 47.1 in August from 47.8 in July.

Markit is also scheduled to release its preliminary report on U.S. manufacturing activity in the month of August not long after the start of trading.

Nonetheless, overall trading activity may be somewhat subdued on a summer Friday, potentially exaggerating any moves by the markets.