Wall Street Poised To Decline

(RTTNews) - The Middle East conflict and soaring oil and gas prices are pushing the market sentiments down. Halting of ship movements through the Strait of Hormuz, quadrupling tanker costs, chaos in global air transport and attack on U.S. Consulate in Dubai are worsening the situation.

Reports on private sector employment and service sector activity are likely to get attention today.

In the Asian trading session, gold prices were up more than 1 percent, recovering some of the losses in the previous session. Oil prices continued to rise.

As of 7.45 am ET, the Dow futures were losing 35.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were down 1.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were adding 18.50 points.

The U.S. major averages finished lower. The Dow ended the day down 403.51 points or 0.8 percent at 48,502.27. The Nasdaq slumped 232.17 points or 1.0 percent to 22,516.69 and the S&P 500 slid 64.99 points or 0.9 percent to 6,816.63.

On the economic front, the ADP Employment Report for February will be released at 8.15 am ET. The consensus is 43000, while it was up 22,000 in the prior month.

The Purchasing Managers' Index or PMI Composite Final for February will be issued at 9.45 am ET. The Composite Index Flash data was 52.3. The Services Index is expected to be 52.3, unchanged from the prior Flash data.

The ISM Services Index for February will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 52.6, while it was up 53.8 in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Petroleum Status Report for the week is scheduled at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the crude oil inventories were up 16.0 million barrels and the gasoline inventories were down 1.0 million barrels.

The Beige Book, usually published two week prior to the monetary policy meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC is expected at 2.00 pm ET.

Asian stocks slumped on Wednesday. China's Shanghai Composite index fell 0.98 percent to 4,082.47. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 2.01 percent to 25,249.48.

Japanese stocks fell on the day. The Nikkei average ended the session down 3.61 percent at 54,245.54. The broader Topix index tumbled 3.67 percent to 3,633.67.

Australian markets closed at a three-week low. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.94 percent to 8,901.20. The broader All Ordinaries index settled 1.94 percent lower at 9,117.10.