US pre-open: Stocks to nudge lower as investors eye earnings
Us stock futures pointed to a marginally weaker open on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to the start of the first-quarter earnings season and mulled the latest developments in global trade relations.
At 1230 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.1% lower.
James Hughes, chief market analyst at Axi Trader, said: "Wall Street is eyeing a softer start to Tuesday’s trade, with late gains across many Asian indices failing to provide anything in the way of confidence. Analyst downgrades on some heavyweight US stocks yesterday just as earnings season gets underway combined with fresh disappointment in the way of economic data is doing little to lift the mood amongst US equity traders.
"With JOLT job openings looking to be the stand out on today’s economic calendar, and with this number tipped to show a meaningful downturn in the level of advertised vacancies, the pressure is mounting on the Federal Reserve to intervene."
JOLTS job openings figures are due out at 1400 BST.
Trade relations were in focus again as it emerged that the US is considering imposing tariffs on about $11bn of goods from the European Union in response to subsidies that support Airbus.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: "Hopes were high last week that trade tensions between the US and China were being resolved, but now the president appears keen to reopen the battle with Europe even before the one with China is resolved. Such a development is not likely to be positive for risk assets, especially after such a strong run and ahead of a vital season for earnings."
In corporate news, Wynn Resorts shares were likely to be active after it confirmed that it was in talks to buy Australia's Crown Resorts.
On the data front, the National Federation of Independent Business's small business optimism index nudged up to 101.8 in March from 101.7 the month before, but was still below consensus expectations of 102.0.
"Small business owners continue to create jobs, expand their operations, and are enjoying strong sales," said NFIB president and chief executive Juanita D. Duggan.
"Since Congress resolved the shutdown, uncertainty has declined as small business owners add jobs, increase sales, and invest in their businesses and employees."
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "This is disappointing; we expected clear rebounds in the key expectations components - for the economy and firms’ own sales - but both were unchanged, despite the rebound in stock prices and the upturn in most of the labour market components of the survey, which were released last week ahead of the employment report, as usual."