Investors paused Wednesday morning on reports the U.S. is pressing allies to back a military strike on Syria.
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Dow Jones futures were lower by 0.32%. The S&P 500 was down 0.47% and the Nasdaq Composite was off 0.42%.
The Trump administration is working to rally support for a possible military strike on Syria for an alleged chemical-weapons attack according to the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. stocks surged Tuesday following a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping in which he said he would open the country’s economy and lower import tariffs on products, including cars.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 428.90 points, or 1.79%, to 24,408. The S&P 500 jumped 43.71 points, or 1.61%, to 2,656.87. The Nasdaq advanced 143.96 points, or 2.07%, to 7,094.30.
Facebook shares rose 4.5%, their best performance in two years, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared in Congress to testify on the social network’s data privacy policies
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On the U.S. economic calendar, investors will get another inflation report in the form of consumer prices. On Tuesday, March wholesale prices increased by 0.3%.
The Fed will also release the minutes of the last policy setting meeting.
“This evening we see the FOMC release their latest minutes, with markets attempting to better ascertain exactly how many rate rises we will see under Powell in 2018,” said Joshua Mahony, Market Analyst at IG. “With Janet Yellen speculating that we will likely see 3-4 2018 rate rises, markets will be watching keenly to see if the improved fiscal outlook will indeed push the Fed into tightening policy at such a pace.”
In Asian market trading, Japan’s Nikkei slipped by 0.5%, the first decline in 3 days.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose for a fourth day adding 0.6%.
China’s Shanghai ended higher by 0.6%.
European markets opened lower.
London’s FTSE was down 0.02%. France’s CAC was off 0.19% and Germany’s DAX was lower by 0.21%.
