Jan 21 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures steadied on Wednesday after the biggest Wall Street selloff in three months, with investors focused on President Donald Trump’s speech at Davos after his plans to acquire Greenland jolted investors earlier this week.
All three major U.S. indexes ended Tuesday down nearly 2% each, their biggest one-day drops in three months, as global investors fled to safe-haven assets after Trump threatened to implement a wave of new tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump is giving a keynote address at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, where he is expected to once again make a push towards acquiring Greenland.
U.S. megacap companies including Nvidia and Apple were among the worst hit in Tuesday’s selloff. Combined with a drop in the dollar and Treasuries, the selloff revived talk of the Sell America trade that emerged following the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement in April.
The CBOE Volatility index eased slightly to 19.60 points on Wednesday, having touched a two-month high of 20.99 the previous day.
At 5:56 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis climbed 51 points, or 0.11%, and S&P 500 e-minis rose 13.25 points, or 0.19%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis added 26.25 points, or 0.11%.
Investors will also keep a close eye on speeches from other business and world leaders at Davos as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing of arguments over Trump’s effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
The fourth-quarter earnings season picks up pace, with several major companies including J&J, Procter & Gamble and Intel set to report this week.
Netflix sank 6.6% in premarket trading despite beating expectations for fourth-quarter revenue and earnings, as the streaming giant remains locked in a fierce bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery.
United Airlines rose 4.2% after the carrier issued an upbeat outlook for the current quarter and the full year, buoyed by strong demand from higher-income and corporate travelers.
Of the 33 companies in the S&P 500 that reported quarterly earnings through last Friday, 84.8% beat analysts’ profit estimates, as per LSEG I/B/E/S data, compared to the long-term average of 67.3%
Among other movers, Kraft Heinz fell 3.5% after a regulatory filing showed Berkshire Hathaway may shed its 27.5% stake in the consumer company.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
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