U.S. stock index futures slipped on Wednesday as investors examined President Donald Trump's latest pronouncements on trade restrictions and awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve's January meeting, expected to be released later in the day.
The U.S. president said on Tuesday that he intends to impose auto tariffs "in the neighborhood of 25%", along with similar duties on semiconductor and pharmaceuticals imports.
Minutes of the U.S. central bank's January policy meeting - where voting members elected to let interest rates stand and Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there would be no rush to cut them again until inflation and jobs data made it appropriate - are scheduled to be released at 2 p.m. ET.
Investors will look for hints on the Fed's rate path in the minutes in light of last week's mixed consumer and producer prices data, coupled with a sharp drop in retail sales, which had sent Treasury yields lower.
"Keep an eye out for further discussions on the impact of Trump's policies and possible insights into how members have changed their views on the timing of further rate cuts, if any, compared to the December forecasts," Karl Steiner, head of analysis at SEB, said in a note.
Traders currently see at least one 25-basis-point rate cut and a 44% chance of an additional lowering by December, according to LSEG data.
Since his inauguration in January, Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on all imports from China, on top of existing levies. He also announced and delayed for a month 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.
The S&P 500 (.SPX) eked out an all-time closing high in the last session, lifting tech heavyweights Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Nvidia (NVDA.O).
At 06:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 113 points, or 0.25%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 10.75 points, or 0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 32.5 points, or 0.15%.
Retail giant Walmart's (WMT.N) results, a bellwether for how the American consumer is faring, are due later this week.
Arista Networks (ANET.N) dropped 4.6% despite the cloud computing provider forecasting first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates.
Bumble (BMBL.O) slid 17.8% after the dating app operator forecast first-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates.
Specialty chemicals company Celanese (CE.N) lost 13.1% after reporting a quarterly loss.
Payments processor Shift4 (FOUR.N) fell 9.9% after its fourth-quarter results and news that the company has agreed to buy Global Blue (GB.N) in a deal valued at $2.5 billion. Shares of Global Blue rose 19.1%.
Website builder Wix.com (WIX.O) advanced 5.9% after beating fourth-quarter net profit expectations.
