US index futures are pointing towards a slightly softer start to Tuesday’s session, although markets are arguably waiting on some key geopolitical developments before attempting to call further direction.
The weekend’s G7 summit saw fresh optimism served up for hopes of a US-China trade deal, something which was sufficient to lend support across many major Asian markets overnight, whilst expectations are also rising that tensions in the Gulf can be de-escalated following President Macron’s overtures to broker a meeting between Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart.
Despite these optimistic messages, support has been relatively muted on Wall Street so far, although with the Dow sitting essentially in the middle of the August trading range, there’s arguably potential for some gains to be seen in the short term without any immediate need to suggest that the market has moved straight into overbought territory.
US Consumer Confidence readings for August will be released shortly after the opening bell , but against a backdrop of such high profile geopolitical events, even a significantly worse than expected print here may struggle to have much of a lasting impact on a market that clearly remains optimistic over the near term outlook.
Ahead of the open, the market is calling the Dow down 2 at 2876 and the S&P 500 down 16 at 25883.