U.S. Futures Point to Bounce as Trump Sees ‘Tremendous’ Buy Opportunity

U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening on Wednesday after a sharp decline that President Donald Trump suggested was a buying opportunity.

Monday's shortened pre-Christmas trading session saw U.S. equities suffer their worst Christmas Eve ever, with the Dow plunging more than 600 points, while the S&P 500closed on the brink of bear market territory.

Trump blamed the decline on the Federal Reserve, saying that “they're raising interest rates too fast because they think the economy is so good. But I think that they will get it pretty soon.”

Trump also expressed his optimism that stocks would bounce back.

“I have great confidence in our companies. We have companies, the greatest in the world, and they're doing really well. They have record kinds of numbers. So I think it's a tremendous opportunity to buy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

But analysts remained skeptical in the face of political turmoil in Washington which led to a partial government shutdown on Saturday as Trump insisted on Democrats granting him funding for a southern border wall.

“I can't tell you when the government is going to reopen,” Trump said, speaking after a Christmas Day video conference with U.S. troops serving abroad. “I can tell you it's not going to reopen until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they'd like to call it. I'll call it whatever they want, but it's all the same thing. It's a barrier from people pouring into the country, from drugs.”

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