Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open
US stock futures are heading south in New York, following most European markets moving downwards in early afternoon trading.
Asian markets recorded small losses by their close this morning.
A little earlier the S&P was down by 0.64 per cent, while the Nasdaq was off by 0.72 per cent, and the Dow 0.53 per cent lower.
Moving the market in the US today there is little that can rival the news that Donald Trump is set to become the Republican party's presidential nominee after his main rival Ted Cruz threw in the towel.
Last night Trump stormed to victory in Indiana, taking 53 per cent of the vote, compared to Cruz's 36 per cent. Cruz announced his retirement from the race shortly after.
Read more: Trump vs. Clinton on economic policy
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders narrowly beat front-runner Hilary Clinton in Indiana, taking at least 43 of the 83 available delegates.
Meanwhile, the US dollar index has lost ground, while the euro edged up to near $1.152 and the yen was near 106.5 yen against the greenback a little earlier.
Treasury yields also dialled it back, with the 2-year yield near 0.75 per cent and the 10-year yield near 1.8 per cent.
In stocks:
Banks are in focus this morning, with seven of the world's biggest banks agreeing to settle rate-rigging claims. US banks Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, are joined by European counterparts Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland Group in agreeing to pay $324m to settle claims they participated in a conspiracy to rig the ISDAfix benchmark from 2009 to 2012.
The biggest company to announce results before the open, media giant Time Warner, will also be the centre of attention.
Revenues at Time Warner were up three per cent at $7.3bn for the three months to the end of March, pushed on by an earnings jump at CNN and home of Game of Thrones HBO and handily offsetting a weaker performance from its Warner Bros film studio. Net income rose by a quarter to $1.2bn, or $1.53 a share.
Read more: Just what has the EU got against e-cigs?
Philip Morris and other big tobacco firms will be drawing the eye of investors after a top European court upheld standardised packaging laws for cigarettes. Brands will also have to feature prominent health warnings from 2020. The law also bans menthol cigarettes and sets rules for the sale of e-cigarettes.
Most of the US earnings action is happening after the close today:
In Europe we've already heard from a boat-load of companies (including ABinBev, Royal Dutch Shell, and Adidas), with only Time Warner of note in the US before the opening bell.
After the close however we'll get the latest numbers from Tesla, 21st Century Fox, Fitbit, Kraft Heinz, TripAdvisor, Weight Watchers, and Whole Foods.
Economic news:
A slightly busier day for economic news today. Factory orders and ISM services data will be released at 3pm London time, then at 3.30pm we'll get the latest natural-gas inventories.
Earlier we heard from ADP that private job creation slowed even further last month as firms added just 156,000 jobs in April.
ADP's jobs numbers come just two days ahead of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report, which is expected to show the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters estimate.