Investing.com - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Tuesday as investors awaited a probable Federal Reserve interest rate cut and more big-name earnings as third- quarter earnings season continued.
By 06:45 AM ET (10:45 GMT) Dow futures were down 42 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures were off three points, or 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.
The S&P 500 hit a record high on Monday, while the Nasdaq fell just short of its lifetime high touched in late July boosted by strong earnings, hopes for a trade deal between the U.S. and China and expectations for another Fed rate cut this week.
President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to sign a significant part of a trade deal with China ahead of schedule but did not elaborate on the timing, building on optimism from Friday when Washington said it was "close to finalizing" some parts of a trade deal.
Economic data shows the trade war between the world's two largest economies has begun to take a toll on both countries, leading to worries about a global slowdown.
The U.S. central bank is expected to cut interest rates for the third time this year on Wednesday in order to offset risks from slowing growth, but focus will squarely be on the outlook for the future path of monetary policy.
"Markets are 90% pricing in a [rate] cut," said David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets.
"I don't think they'll be leaving the door open for another cut in 2019 or early 2020 because that could just be setting [expectations] that every time the markets fear a recession, a rate cut is warranted."
In earnings news, oil major BP (LON:BP) reported earnings that were modestly ahead of expectations Tuesday, but the results were overshadowed by news that Saudi Aramco is planning to begin marketing its IPO on Sunday.
Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) and Kellogg (NYSE:K) were just some of the names reporting on Tuesday.
Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was also in focus after reporting quarterly results late Monday showing that costs continue to rise faster than revenue, dampening Wall Street's enthusiasm despite Google's continued dominance in advertising sales. Shares fell 2% after hours.
--Reuters contributed to this report