Dow futures tumble, Boeing posts record loss

U.S. equity futures are pointing to a lower open Wednesday.

Dow futures suggest a decline of nearly 300 points or 0.9%, weighed down by Boeing, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 are also lower.

The airplane maker posted its largest annual loss on record of $11.9 billion still plagued by the 737 Max Jet crisis.

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Despite the broader declines, Microsoft shares are higher after the software giant said its fiscal second-quarter net income rose more than 30% to $15.5 billion. Sales advanced 17% to $43.1 billion. Both figures topped analyst expectations.  Shares were up 4% in after-hours trading.

In other news, the Fed is expected to keep its extremely supportive policy stance unchanged given the slow progress in vanquishing the pandemic, analysts said.

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Markets have meandered since last week as investors weighed solid corporate earnings results against renewed worries that troubles with COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the spread of new variants of coronavirus might delay a recovery from the pandemic.

The reality that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 billion stimulus package won’t be “rubber stamped” by the U.S. Senate is also weighing on sentiment.

Quarterly earnings reports are expected on Wednesday from Boeing, AT&T, Apple, Facebook and Tesla.

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On the economic calendar, the Census Bureau is expected to say that new orders for manufactured big-ticket items rose 0.9% month-over-month in December. If you factor out the transportation component orders are anticipated to edge up 0.5%. Orders for core capital goods, a closely-watched proxy for business spending, are also seen rising 0.6% for the month.

In Europe, London's FTSE was off 0.6%, Germany's DAX dropped 1.0% and France's CAC was down 0.7%.

In Asian markets, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index added 0.3%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.3% and China's Shanghai Composite index gained 0.1%.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	44782	-128.65	-0.29%
SP500	S&P 500	6047.15	+14.77	+0.24%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	19403.947849	+185.78	+0.97%

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 lost 0.1% to 3,849.62 but was within 0.2% of the record high it set Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%, to 30,937.04. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite also slid 0.1%, to 13,626.06.

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In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil added 1 cent to $52.61 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gave up 16 cents to $52.77 per barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 5 cents to $55.96 per barrel.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.