US STOCKS-Wall St futures steady with focus on Mideast talks, US-China summit

Wall ‌Street's ​main stock index futures were steady on Wednesday while investors awaited any positive outcome from negotiations to end the Middle East conflict, ahead of the high-stakes US-China summit due on Thursday.

Crude prices ‌pinned below $100-a-barrel offered markets a sense of calm as Saudi Arabia restarted operations at a critical pipeline. Traders awaited updates from US and Iranian officials engaging on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to reach Washington later in ‌the day on a state visit. The agenda includes the trade truce arrived at last year between the two superpowers, ‌AI regulation and US arms sales to Taiwan.

He is also expected to meet several top executives, including those from General Motors, Meta, Apple , Amazon and Tesla. Shares of these companies were flat to marginally higher in premarket trading. At 5:25 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 31 points, or 0.06%, and S&P 500 ⁠E-minis were ​up 6.75 points, or 0.09%. Nasdaq ⁠100 E-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.01%.

Optimism around AI continued to power Wall Street as the tech-heavy Nasdaq notched its first intraday record high ⁠since early June on Tuesday. The latest gains have been aided by strong reception of Meta's AI assistant Muse, which analysts say could benefit tech infrastructure stocks, ​while also spurring AI disruption chatter in pockets of the market. The S&P 500 Financials sector logged its biggest daily ⁠drop since March on Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab and consumer-focused companies such as Uber and Airbnb were marginally higher, steadying after sharp declines in the previous session. AI spending ⁠and ​higher energy costs from the US-Iran war have had policymakers at the Federal Reserve flag the need to keep interest rates restrictive, following last week's decision to increase borrowing costs.

S&P Global's September Purchasing Managers Index is expected later in the day, with economists ⁠polled by Reuters anticipating data to show business activity stayed in expansion territory — above the 50 mark. Fed Governor Michael Barr is ⁠expected to speak later in ⁠the day and his remarks will be scrutinized for thoughts on policy outlook. Traders are now pricing in a coin toss of a chance that interest rates could be hiked by at least ‌25 basis points next month, ‌the CME Group's FedWatch Tool showed.