Wall Street to extend losses amid plunging oil prices

Wall Street index futures were pointing to a lower open in pre-session hours on Wednesday, with oil prices dragging energy stocks to the downside and as traders looked ahead of official inventory data from the US Energy Information Administration later in the day.

US markets ended in red territory on Tuesday following an industry report that showed a larger-than-expected decline in crude inventories, but another increase on gasoline supplies.

The Dow Jones industrial average reached a new all-time high before closing down, with Disney as the main decliner. The S&P 500 was down by 0.67 percent, with the energy sector falling 1.3 percent in average. The Nasdaq composite dropped by 0.8 percent.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: -61.85 / -0.29% / 21467.14
• Standard & Poor’s 500: -16.43 / -0.67% / 2437.03
• Nasdaq Composite: -50.98 / -0.82% / 6188.03

The US-based West Texas Intermediate crude contracts for July delivery settled down by 2.19 percent yesterday, moving to $43.23 per barrel over concerns of growing US shale production. Traders fear that OPEC-led efforts to counteract the ongoing supply overhang will not be able to prompt up prices and rebalance market forces.

OPEC and non-OPEC countries agreed to extend their current 1.8 million-bpd output cuts until March 2018, but since the deal there hasn’t been a rebound on crude benchmarks.

Market players were also paying attention to the latest economic developments on Washington. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that a "massive tax reform" will be done this year and that it’s his “number 1 priority”.

"We're 100 percent committed to getting it done this year. It's critical to the economy, [...] We have a unique opportunity to do this. It's been 30 years. We have to fix the system and our teams are meeting daily."

No major reports were released on Tuesday, but traders kept an eye on a series of FOMC speakers, including Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer.

Ahead today, EIA’s weekly inventory report will be out as of 14:30 GMT. Existing home sales for May are due for release at 14:00 GMT, with a 0.5 percent decline eyed.