U.S. stocks were poised for a slightly lower open Wednesday, weighed down by continued sharp swings in Chinese markets and a pair of weak earnings reports from retailers.

The downbeat tone for stocks around the globe was kicked off in China, where shares spent most of the session in negative territory before a late-day turnaround. The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 1.2% after falling as much as 5% earlier. The sharp moves sparked declines in other Asian markets, including in Japan and Hong Kong. The losses continued in Europe, with Germany's DAX down 1.4% and France's CAC-40 losing 0.9%.

Stock futures indicated a 0.4% opening loss for the S&P 500. Changes in futures aren't necessarily reflected in market moves after the opening bell.

Still, investors warned against reading too much into early stock moves in an environment with lighter-than-average trading volumes.

The focus should shift to the path of U.S. interest rates later in the day. The Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its latest policy meeting at 2 p.m. EDT, possibly offering clues about the likelihood of an increase in rates at the central bank's September meeting.

While the Fed minutes provide an illustration of the debate on raising rates, they're somewhat outdated at this point, said Jack Caffrey, equity portfolio manager at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. The meeting took place before China's currency devaluation and a continued slide in oil prices, which could give officials pause, while solid hiring in July could boost the case for higher rates.

"I'm not going to try to parse [the minutes]...because I'm recognizing that they are stale," said Mr. Caffrey.

Along with the Fed, Mr. Caffrey said he's looking for wage increases to spur the long-awaited pickup in consumer spending. "A better paid workforce is...more willing to spend and better able to spend, which could make for what we think is an extended cycle," he added.

In earnings news, Lowe's Cos. on Wednesday reported weaker-than-expected profit growth in its second quarter. Shares slipped 1.2% in premarket trading.

Staples Inc. said its profit fell in the second quarter as sales continued to decline and store traffic dwindled. The company said it remains on track with its takeover of Office Depot Inc. shares fell 2.6% premarket.

Meanwhile, Target Corp. lifted its profit outlook for the year after posting stronger-than-expected earnings in its second quarter. Shares of the retailer rose 4.6% in premarket trade.

Second-quarter earnings season is winding down. With results from 474 companies in the S&P 500, profits are on track to slip 0.7%, according to FactSet. Going into earnings season, analysts had forecast a 4.5% decline.

In commodity markets, gold futures added 0.4% to $1121.20 an ounce. Crude-oil futures lost 0.5% to $42.93 a barrel.

Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com

 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 19, 2015 08:55 ET (12:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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