US pre-open: Futures in the green following Monday's heavy sell-off

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Tuesday as major indices looked set to crawl back some of the heavy losses recorded in the previous session.

As of 1215 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.46%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.43% and 0.41% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed a whopping 725.81 points lower on Monday, its worst performance in eight months, as concerns regarding the spread of the Covid-19 delta variant saw market participants offload equities en masse.

Rising coronavirus cases were in focus again on Tuesday, with the delta variant spreading, predominately among the unvaccinated, and the US now averaging about 26,000 daily cases over the last seven days - more than double the average number seen in mid-June.

IG's Chris Beauchamp said: "Virus worries and the expectations of a hit to economic growth have combined to knock back stock markets, although for the US the selloff is still very modest compared to the gains of the past year. European markets have been harder hit, and have seen their progress to the upside stall in recent months, a reflection of the more muted outlook for earnings and growth."

Also in focus, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to a fresh five-month low at around 1.17%.

In the corporate space, Halliburton posted a second-quarter net income of $227.0m, up from $170.0m recorded in the first quarter, while total revenues ticked up from $3.5bn to $3.7bn as both North America and international markets continued to improve.

Still to come, tobacco giant Philip Morris will report prior to the open, while Chipotle, Netflix and United Airlines were all slated to report after the close.

On the macro front, building permits and housing starts data will be released at 1330 BST.