By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Tuesday in cautious trading ahead of key inflation data later in the week.
At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 130 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 18 points, or 0.4%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 80 points, or 0.6%.
The main indices on Wall Street closed marginally higher Monday, with the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining just 16 points, with no U.S. economic data releases, few major earnings reports and the Federal Reserve policymakers quiet ahead of next week’s meeting.
This muted activity is likely to continue Tuesday as investors focus on Friday’s U.S. CPI report for May, which could provide clues on the future path of monetary policy tightening.
The expectation continues to be that the Fed will raise its benchmark rate by a half-point next week, and make a similar move in July. But the outlook isn't as clear for the rest of the year, and the inflation report could guide expectations over whether the central bank returns to a more typical quarter-point move or pauses its hiking cycle.
Ahead of this, the Fed will release its consumer credit data for April at 3 PM ET (1900 GMT), which is expected to rise $35 billion on the month to a record $4.6 trillion. That monthly reading would still be lower than both the March and February readings.
Additionally, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is scheduled to testify to the Senate Finance Committee, at 10 AM ET, on the 2023 fiscal year budget.
In corporate news, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) will be in the spotlight after Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk threatened to pull out of his multi-billion-dollar deal to buy the social media company, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced an overhaul of its MacBook Air product.
The earnings season has mostly wound down, but JM Smucker (NYSE:SJM) reports before the bell and investors will be listening to what the food company says about costs and labor.
Oil prices edged lower Tuesday, handing back some of the recent gains with risk sentiment turning negative. That said, any losses are likely to be minor as traders look for increased demand from China, the world’s largest importer of crude, as the country relaxed two months of tough COVID-19 restrictions.
Investors now await U.S. crude supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day, with inventories expected to fall as the U.S. driving season kicks into top gear.
By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% lower at $118.42 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.2% to $119.31.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.5% to $1,852.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0678.