Stocks – U.S. Futures Slip on Trade War Uncertainty; Powell to Testify 

Investing.com – U.S. futures fell on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump continued to keep markets guessing about when and if a trade deal with China will be reached, while testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be the highlight of the day.

Trump said in a speech on Tuesday that while a deal with China was “close” he could still increase tariffs if no deal was reached. He is also expected to decide on possible tariffs on automobiles from the European Union today, although experts expect him to delay a decision by six months.

fell 43 points or 0.5% by 6:40 AM ET (10:40 GMT), while lost 118 points or 0.4% and was down 12 points or 0.4%.

is set to testify before Congress in a hearing at 11:00 AM ET, where he is expected to address the monetary pause for the rest of 2019.

Bank of America (NYSE:) was down 0.9% in premarket trade, while General Electric Company (NYSE:) tumbled 2.5%. Trade sensitive stocks were also lower, with NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:) falling 0.6% and Apple (NASDAQ:) slipping 0.6%.

Elsewhere, 3M Company (NYSE:) rose 0.1% after declaring a $1.44 dividend, while Tesla (NASDAQ:) gained 0.7% after CEO Elon Musk said the electric car company would build a car and battery factory in Berlin, Germany.

On the data front, numbers are out at 08:30 AM ET. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:) reports its fiscal first-quarter after the close, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:) and Foxconn (TW:) also expected to report.

In commodities, rose 0.8% to $1,465.40 a troy ounce, while the , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.1% to 98.210. slipped 0.7% to $56.38 a barrel.

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