US pre-open: Futures point to small gains ahead of Fauci's senate testimony
US futures were pointing to small gains ahead of the bell on Tuesday as market participants continued to monitor the White House's efforts to reopen the economy.
As of 1230 BST, Dow futures were up 0.38%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.28% and 0.36% firmer, respectively.
The Dow Jones closed 109.33 points lower on Monday as market participants became concerned that the White House could be pushing to reopen the nation's economy too soon.
As far as the pandemic was concerned, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr Anthony Fauci will testify before the Senate Health Committee at 1500 BST to discuss reopening the US economy.
While Fauci will tell the Senate that reopening the economy too quickly would lead to "needless suffering and death", stocks that would benefit from a reopening, such as mall owner Simon Property Group and hoteliers Marriott and Wynn Resorts, were up ahead of the bell.
Although the World Health Organization revealed that multiple countries that have relaxed coronavirus restrictions, including China, had seen increases in the number of positive Covid-19 cases, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that the state's restrictions on certain low-risk businesses and activities would be lifted on Friday.
Oanda's Craig Erlam said: "Nothing takes the shine off the easing of lockdown measures like previous success stories seeing fresh spikes in the number of cases. The numbers are still very small but that's how these things start.
"The news may come at a good time for investors with many people questioning whether the stock market truly reflects the magnitude of the situation we're all facing."
US-Sino tensions were also in focus again after Donald Trump, who stormed out of a press briefing after a clash with a reporter on Monday, said he was not interested in reopening the pair's phase one trade deal and ordered US federal retirement funds to pull $4.5bn-worth of investments in Chinese stocks.
In FX headlines, demand in the US dollar and government bonds remained firm as the US treasury prepared to issue $96bn in debt later in the week as part of an effort to finance government spending aimed at combatting the coronavirus-fuelled economic damage ravaging the nation.
On the macro front, US core inflation rate figures will be released at 1330 BST.
This month's Redbook data will be released at 1355 BST, followed by the monthly budget statement at 1900 BST.
Federal Reserve heads Loretta Mester, Patrick Harker, James Bullard, Neel Kashkari and Randall Quarles will all deliver speeches throughout the course of the day.
No major corporate earnings were scheduled for release on Tuesday.