Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors braced for another busy day of earnings and economic data.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 32 points or about 0.13% by 07:00 AM ET (11:00 AM GMT), the S&P 500 futures inched down 1.5 points or 0.06%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 6.25 points or 0.10%.
Wall Street ended lower on Monday, with the three main indexes giving up early gains amid a sharp pullback in telecommunications stocks.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was due to report earnings after the close on Tuesday. The company’s shares rose almost 2% on Monday, despite a broader market decline, amid reports that it could announce a record-breaking boost to its stock buyback and dividend plan to offset weaker iPhone sales.
Besides Apple, a slew of S&P 500 companies are also set to report earnings, with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Aetna (NYSE:AET), Cummins (NYSE:CMI), Under Armour, Shopify, Grubhub and Lumber Liquidators due to report ahead of the open.
Snap, Allstate, Mondelez, Gilead, Suncor Energy, Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) and Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) were to report after the close.
The Federal Reserve is to kick off its two-day policy meeting later in the day and was widely expected to keep rates steady on Wednesday, with most investors expecting the next rate hike to come at its June meeting.
Besides the Fed, there is a batch of data on the economic calendar, including ISM manufacturing activity, construction spending and monthly auto sales.
Markets are also looking ahead to Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for April, which could provide further signs of strength in the world's largest economy.
In currency markets, the dollar hit the highs of the year amid expectations that rising inflation will be a catalyst to push the Fed toward raising interest rates at a faster pace than currently expected.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.43% to 92.02, the strongest level since January 11.
In commodity markets, gold plumbed two-and-a-half month lows, pressured lower by strength in the dollar.
The stronger dollar also weighed on oil prices, which pulled back from recent highs as traders looked ahead to inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute later in the day.
Losses were held in check amid concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump could pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.