Editor’s Note: The future prices of benchmark tracking ETFs and the lede were updated in the story.

U.S. stock futures continued to decline on Wednesday following a mixed close on Monday. Futures of major benchmark indices were lower.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100’s retreat came as peace talks between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European leaders failed to deliver a breakthrough.

After Home Depot Inc. (NYSE:HD), investors await Target Corp.‘s (NYSE:TGT) earnings today and Walmart Inc.‘s (NYSE:WMT) on Thursday.

Investors are also focused on the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell‘s speech later this week at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium for clearer signals on interest rates.

The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.31% and the two-year bond was at 3.76%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing an 82.9% likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting the current interest rates for the Sept. 17 decision.

Futures Change (+/-)
Dow Jones -0.23%
S&P 500 -0.20%
Nasdaq 100 -0.25%
Russell 2000 -0.18%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, fell in premarket on Wednesday. The SPY was down 0.080% at $639.29, while the QQQ declined 0.15% to $568.41, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Cues From Last Session

Real estate, utilities, and consumer staples stocks recorded the biggest gains on Tuesday, with most S&P 500 sectors closing on a positive note. Information technology and communication services stocks, however, bucked the overall market trend and closed lower, contributing to a session where

U.S. stocks settled mostly down. The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 300 points as a lack of fresh bullish catalysts prompted investors to take profits following the recent months-long rally.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) rallied 7%, extending its monthly gains to 27%, after Japan’s SoftBank Group announced a $2 billion investment in the chipmaker. Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) jumped over 3% after posting a double beat on its latest quarterly results.

On the economic data front, U.S. housing starts climbed by 5.2% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 1.428 million in July. Building permits saw a decline of 2.8% …

Full story available on Benzinga.com