US stocks seen lower again on Wednesday as investors await minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting

US stocks are expected to turn lower again on Wednesday, extending the previous session's retreat from recent record highs as investors await the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.2% lower, while S&P 500 futures also shed 0.2%, and those for the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 fell 0.1%. The notes from the latest Fed meeting, due at 2.00pm ET, will offer more indications of when the US central bank may begin scaling back easy-money policies that were adopted at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic after some recent benign economic data. Wednesday will bring US housing starts data, due at 8.30am, which are forecast to show that new-home construction cooled in July. Builders have ramped up activity in response to robust demand, but have run up against rising prices for materials and difficulty attracting enough workers. On the corporate front, ahead of the opening bell, retailers Lowe’s and Target are among those due to report quarterly earnings, while Cisco Systems and Nvidia are set to post earnings after the market close. Five other things to watch on Wednesday: Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that it remains unclear whether the heightened outbreak of the coronavirus Delta variant will have a noticeable impact on the economy. Lowe's forecast full-year sales above estimates as a rise in spending from builders and handymen getting back to housing projects helped offset some of the slowdown in demand from its do-it-yourself customers. Danish brewer Carlsberg raised its full-year earnings guidance after reporting second-quarter sales above expectations as beer volumes exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Binance has appointed a former US Treasury criminal investigator as its global money laundering reporting officer, part of an attempt by one of the world's largest crypto exchanges to reinvent itself as a regulated financial firm. T-Mobile US Inc said an ongoing investigation into a cyberattack on its systems revealed that some personal data of about 7.8 million of its current postpaid customers were compromised.