S&P 500 Futures retrace Tuesday’s losses around the mid-3,300s as Trump favors airline support, paycheck protection

• S&P 500 Futures pick-up bids after taking a U-turn from a three-week high.
• US President Trump tweets favor for airlines, small businesses after turning down the aid package the previous day.
• Trump’s brake to US stimulus, coronavirus worries and Brexit pessimism earlier weighed on the risks.
• BOJ’s Kuroda stays cautiously optimistic amid a light calendar, news feed in Asia.

S&P 500 Futures print 0.20% intraday losses while extending Tuesday’s biggest fall in two weeks to 3,346 during early Wednesday. US President Donald Trump’s latest tweets suggest immediate approval of $25 billion for Airline Payroll Support and $135 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.

The risk barometer slumped nearly 100 points the previous day after Trump stalled the bipartisan talks over the coronavirus (COVID-19) aid package. The risk-off mood got additional support from House Majority Leader Mitch McConnel. Market players also took note of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s criticism of the rejection by terming its arrival at the time when the negotiations were near the deal. On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell also highlighted the need for a fiscal push and added the importance into the deal talks that eventually failed, which in turn magnified the sober mood.

Also contributing to the market’s risk aversion wave could be the fears of a heavy and sustained surge in the US deaths due to the COVID-19. As per the latest forecasts from the University of Washington, quoted by China’s Xinhua, the virus-led death toll in America will cross 360,000 by the end of 2020.

Furthermore, chatters concerning the European Union’s (EU) intentional dragging of the Brexit talks and the fears of national lockdown in the UK are an extra burden on the trading sentiment.

In Asia, the BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda struck a mildly positive statement concerning the region’s ability to gradually overcome the pandemic-led economic slowdown. While speaking at the 62^nd Annual Meeting of the National Association for Business Economics in the US, BOJ’s Kuroda said, “Asia’s economic conditions remain severe but the downturn in growth has been moderate compared with that of other regions.”