U.S. stock futures lower on OPEC, election jitters ahead of Fed speak

Wall Street futures traded lower as attention turns to OPEC and U.S. elections, Fed speakers on tap

Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Monday as a tightening U.S. election race and caution ahead of an informal meeting of oil producers caused investors to take a risk-off attitude, while they also looked ahead to appearances from the U.S. central bank officials.

The blue-chip Dow futures fell 88 points, or 0.48%, by 6:54AM ET (10:54AM GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 10 points, or 0.45%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 28 points, or 0.58%.

With just around six weeks to go until the November 8 U.S. presidential election, the market turned its attention to the first televised U.S. presidential debate Monday night.

The 90-minute debate will begin at 9:00PM ET (01:00 GMT on Tuesday) at Hofstra University in New York, with Lester Holt of NBC News as moderator. It is the first of three planned presidential debates.

Market participants are mostly expecting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and have not factored in the implications of a victory for Donald Trump. The idea of Trump in the White House is a concern for some investors who balk at his populist, unpredictable style.

Recent polls have shown a tightening race, with Clinton's once-comfortable lead narrowing sharply. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll gives Clinton a 4-point lead, 41% to Trump's 37%, among likely voters.

According to a Bloomberg poll, Trump and Clinton were tied at 46% in a head-to-head race, while Trump led by 43% to 41% if the other two primary candidates, Gary Johnson from the Libertine Party and Green Party’s Jill Stein, were included.

Meanwhile, attention was also being paid to the start of the three-day International Energy Forum (IEF) in Algiers. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were tentatively scheduled to hold an informal meeting at the end of the IEF on Wednesday afternoon in which non-OPEC member Russia was expected to participate.

According to market experts, chances that the meeting would yield any action to reduce the global glut appeared minimal, in light of the fact that Saudi Arabia had already warned that no “formal decision” would be made at the gathering.

However, oil found some support in Monday’s trade after Algerian energy minister Noureddine Bouterfa insisted on Sunday that all options were possible for an oil output cut or freeze.

U.S. crude futures traded up 1.10% to $44.97 by 6:55AM ET (10:55AM GMT), while Brent oil gained 1.27% to $47.07.

On Monday’s economic calendar, investors will digest August new home sales at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).

Market participants also looked ahead to appearances from several Federal Reserve (Fed) officials throughout the day, including Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari, Fed governor Daniel Tarullo and Dallas Fed chief Robert Kaplan.

Elsewhere, European and U.K. stocks fell sharply in mid-morning trade, with Germany's DAX down almost 2% as investors continued to worry over the future of Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn).

Shares in the German financial institution tumbled more than 5% on reports that the country’s Chancellor Angela Merkel had denied state aid, though a spokesman for the bank insisted that it had not requested help and would solve its issues on its own.

Earlier, Asian shares closed mostly lower, as investors' attention turned from central banks to American politics ahead of the first U.S. presidential debate, as well as the upcoming informal meeting of OPEC producers.