Weather forecasts in both the United States and Europe indicated that winter would be short this year. The announcement caused crude oil prices to lose the gains earned on Tuesday, and has caused US stock index futures to fall slightly on Wednesday.

In premarket trading, Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) stocks are both down over 1%. Tech stocks helped US markets rally on Tuesday, with Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) leading the way. The S&P 500 closed Tuesday with a 0.95% gain on the year. The NASDAQ composite rallied 7.85% this year, while the Dow Jones industrial will end the year down 0.57% as of Wednesday, December 30.

The S&P 500 energy sector suffered the greatest losses on the year, currently down 22.68%. A rout in commodities also caused material prices to decline 8.72% in 2015.

US stock index futures struggled in early morning trading on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 E-minis down 0.18% and 54,000 contracts traded. The NASDAQ 100 e-minis are down 0.1% on the day, or 4.75 points, on volumes of just over 10,000 contracts. Dow e-minis suffered the greatest losses in early morning trading, down 41 points, or.23%, on the day. Just over 10,900 contracts were traded at this time.