Wall Street Prepares For Moderately Lower Opening

(RTTNews) - Retail sales report and Industrial Production are likely to get attention on Wednesday, while investor sentiments are highly focused on tariff discussions.

Asian shares finished mostly down, while European shares are trading lower.

Early trends on the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower.

As of 8.00 am ET, the Dow futures were down 44.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 41.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were tumbling 264.25 points.

The U.S. major averages closed modestly lower on Tuesday. The Dow fell 155.83 points or 0.4 percent to 40,368,96, the S&P 500 dipped 9.34 points or 0.2 percent to 5,396.63 and the Nasdaq edged down 8.32 points or 0.1 percent to 16,823.17.

On the economic front, the U.S. Commerce Department's Retail Sales for March will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 1.4 percent, while it was up 0.2 percent in February.

The Industrial Production for March will be released at 9.15 am ET. The consensus for industrial production is a decline of 0.2 percent, while it was up 0.7 percent in the previous month.

The Business Inventories for February will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.2 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in January.

The Housing Market Index for April is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 38, while it was up 39 in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Petroleum Status Report for the week will be revealed at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the crude inventories were up 2.6 million barrels, while gasoline inventories were down 1.6 million barrels.

Twenty-year Treasury Bond auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

Treasury International Capital for February will be revealed at 4.00 pm ET. In the prior month, the Net long term securities transactions were down $45.2 billion.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak on the economic outlook before the Economic Club of Chicago at 1.30 pm ET.

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid will speak on the economy and community banking with Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan before a Global Perspectives event hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and the Dallas Citizens Council at 7.00 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended mostly lower. China's Shanghai Composite index edged up by 0.26 percent to 3,276.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.91 percent to 21,056.98.

Japanese markets fell sharply. The Nikkei average dropped 1.01 percent to 33,920.40 while the broader Topix index settled 0.61 percent lower at 2,498.03.

Australian markets ended a choppy session marginally lower.