U.S. stock futures are just slightly higher in pre-market trading for Wednesday, September 14. The Dow Futures are at 18024.0 for a gain of 15.00 points. The S&P 500 Futures are at 2124.25 for a gain of 2.00 points. The Nasdaq Futures are at 4732.75 for a gain of 8.75 points. The Russell Futures are at 1210.2 for a gain of 1.70 points.

In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is at 16614.24 for a loss of -114.80 or -0.69 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is at 23190.64 for a loss of -25.12 points or -0.11 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite is at 3002.85 for a loss of -20.66 points or -0.68 percent. India’s S&P BSE Sensex is at 28372.23 for a gain of 18.69 points or 0.07 percent. In Europe, the FTSE 100 is at 6706.57 for a gain of 40.94 points or 0.61 percent. Germany’s DAX is at 10420.34 for a gain of 33.74 points or 0.32 percent. France’s CAC 40 is at 4387.87 for a gain of 0.69 points or 0.02 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 is at 340.07 for a gain of 1.35 points or 0.40 percent.

Wednesday’s Factors and Events

On Wednesday, reports on the economic calendar include Mortgage Applications, Import and Export Prices and the EIA Petroleum Status Report.

Investors will be watching oil prices after they reported losses yesterday following a monthly report from the IEA that projected lower demand in 2017. The market also continues to watch economic indicators ahead of the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy meeting next week.

In the pre-market, stocks trading actively include the following:

NRG Energy

Marathon Oil

Chesapeake Energy

Concho Resources

Crown Castle

Best Buy

Anadarko Petroleum

Signet Jewelers

Skyworks Solutions

Hormel Foods

Stocks to watch on Wednesday include Monsanto and Bayer as they continue merger talks. Wells Fargo also continues to be in the spotlight after the bank was fined for a fake-account scandal which included millions of fake bank and credit card accounts opened.

Tuesday’s Activity

Stocks were lower Tuesday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18066.75 for a loss of -258.32 or -1.41 percent. The S&P 500 was also lower, closing at 2127.02 for a loss of -32.02 points or -1.48 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed lower at 5155.25 for a loss of -56.63 points or -1.09 percent.

Source: DJIA, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite. Google Finance.

Other notable index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, lower at 1212.32 for a loss of -23.55 points or -1.91 percent; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index at 734.82 for a loss of -13.36 points or -1.79 percent; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1517.26 for a loss of -28.71 points or -1.86 percent; the S&P 100 Index at 943.33 for a loss of -12.87 points or -1.35 percent; the Russell 3000 closing at 1258.29 for a loss of -19.71 or -1.54 percent; the Russell 1000 Index lower at 1178.70 for a loss of -18.10 points or -1.51 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index lower at 601.89 for a loss of -10.47 points or -1.71 percent.