Wall Street
Martha Stokes, chartered market technician (CMT), co-founder and chief executive officer of TechniTrader, spoke exclusively to the International Business Times about Michael Lewis’ new book, “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,” and whether his claims that the U.S. stock market is rigged are valid. Reuters

Stock futures point to a slow start for Wednesday but that could change once quarterly earnings announcements from big players across a variety of sectors begin coming through. Data on new home sales should also help influence market direction.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.03 percent while futures on the S&P 500 were down 0.04 percent and those on the Nasdaq were down 0.07 percent. On Tuesday, the Dow gained 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 rose 0.41 percent while the Nasdaq rose 0.97 percent.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) are among those scheduled to announce earnings on Wednesday. On the data front, flash manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, for April is due at 9:45 a.m. EDT, followed by new home sales numbers for March at 10 a.m.

In Europe, markets were weak with the Stoxx Europe 600 index down 0.26 percent while the FTSE 100 was down 0.26 percent. Germany’s DAX-30 fell 0.25 percent while France's CAC-40 was down 0.37 percent.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei-225 ended the day up 1.09 percent while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.97 percent while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.26 percent. South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.19 percent, while India's BSE Sensex was trading up 0.6 percent.

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