By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally lower Tuesday, struggling for significant direction with investors looking towards this week’s key inflation data for a lead.
At 7 AM ET (1200 GMT), the Dow Futures contract traded flat, S&P 500 Futures traded 6 points, or 0.1%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 30 points, or 0.2%.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday just one point higher, the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6%, with the major indices trading in relatively narrow ranges, especially compared with last week’s dramatic moves.
This muted trading is expected to continue Tuesday, with investors firmly focused on Thursday’s consumer prices report for January and what this will potentially mean for Federal Reserve monetary policy going forward.
“Data are expected to show inflationary pressures in the U.S. continuing to heat up at the start of the year, likely putting a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase next month on autopilot,” said analysts at Fullerton Markets, in a note.
Economists expect the CPI to rise by 0.5% on the month and 7.3% year over year, a four-decade high, with core CPI (excluding food and energy prices) also rising 0.5% and 5.9% on the month and year, respectively.
Elsewhere, earnings season continues with industrial materials maker DuPont (NYSE:DD) beating fourth-quarter profit expectations and increasing its quarterly dividend by 10%.
Numbers are also out from drugmaker Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG), and they will be joined later by ride-hailing firm Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT), Tex-Mex restaurant operator Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) and food distributor Sysco (NYSE:SYY).
Elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal reported that Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) plans to replace its chief executive officer John Foley with Barry McCarthy, the former chief financial officer of Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), as the exercise bike maker and former pandemic favorite looks to cope with waning demand.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) will also be in focus after long-time backer Peter Thiel resigned from its board, while Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has canceled its planned purchase of chip designer ARM from Softbank (OTC:SFTBY).
Oil prices weakened Tuesday, continuing to drop after closing lower for the first time in seven sessions as the market focused on the resumption of nuclear talks between the West and Iran in Vienna, which could lead to the removal of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.
Such an outcome could potentially increase global supply by over one million barrels per day, equal to over 1% of global supply.
Investors will also look for U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day, while talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron appear to have calmed tensions over the future of Ukraine.
By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures fell 1.7% to $89.81 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.9% to $90.96.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,818.70/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1426.