Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Tuesday as risk-off sentiment dominated global markets ahead of a series of risk events whose peak will be reached on Thursday.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 34 points, or 0.16%, at 6:58AM ET (10:58GMT), the S&P 500 futures fell 5 points, or 0.18%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 5 points, or 0.09%.
With the three major U.S. indices still hovering near record highs, despite a small pullback in the previous session, investors seemed wary Tuesday of placing further bullish bets in equities.
U.S. futures shared moves seen earlier in global stocks as investors shunned riskier assets ahead of potentially market-moving events later this week, including former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to a Senate committee, the U.K.’s general election and a European Central Bank meeting.
Investor sentiment remained skewed toward safe-haven assets on Tuesday such as the Japanese yen, gold and Treasures ahead of the key risk events.
At 7:05AM ET (11:05GMT) he dollar slid 0.9% against the yen to 109.45 on Tuesday, its lowest level since April 21.
Meanwhile, gold futures rose to a session peak of $1,294.97 a troy ounce, a level not seen since April 17. It was last at $1,294.11, up $11.41, or about 0.9%.
Elsewhere, the U.S. 10-Year bond yield fell 3.0 basis points to 2.150%, not far from last week's seven-month low of 2.144%.
The above on a relatively light data calendar stateside, with the major report being the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for April out at 10:00AM ET (16:00GMT). Despite the lag in timing, the report has garnered attention as Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen has cited its importance for assessing the state of the labor market.
Meanwhile, oil prices pared earlier losses in early morning North American trade Tuesday as investors continued to weigh the impact that the diplomatic rift between Qatar and several Arab states including Saudi Arabia could have on efforts by OPEC to tighten the market.
Qatar's foreign minister said Tuesday that Doha was ready for mediation efforts after the Arab world's biggest powers severed ties with it, adding that Qatar's ruler had delayed a speech in order to give Kuwait a chance to ease regional tensions.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.15% to $47.33 by 7:06AM ET (11:06GMT), while Brent oil lost 0.18% to $49.37.