By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally lower Tuesday, with investors warily awaiting the release of a deluge of quarterly corporate earnings.
At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 10 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded 3 points, or 0.1%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 20 points, or 0.2%.
The major indices closed with small losses on Monday in lackluster trade with the European markets on holiday. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both dropped 0.1%, while the broad-based S&P 500 fell just 0.02%.
These averages have been grinding lower of late, hitting one-month lows, weighed by concerns over persistently high inflation, a hawkish Federal Reserve and uncertainty arising out of the war in Ukraine.
U.S. equity funds saw outflows of $15.5 billion in the week through April 13, the biggest outflow of the year, according to strategists at Bank of America, citing EPFR Global data.
Investors will now be looking to see whether these worries have translated into weakness in companies’ earnings over the quarter.
Before the opening bell on Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and The Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) are set to report their latest results, while Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) and Citizens Financial (NYSE:CFG) are also slated to release data.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is also due to release its latest earnings after the close Tuesday, with the streaming market leader warning in its last quarterly update of slower growth ahead in a more saturated, post-pandemic environment. Streaming subscription cancellations numbers out of the U.K. earlier Tuesday point to a tricky environment.
Elsewhere, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) will remain in focus after strong gains on Monday in response to reports of private equity interest, potentially creating a bidding war after the social media company last week rejected a hostile $43 billion approach from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
Turning to the economic data slate, investors will be looking toward fresh housing data with housing starts and building permits for March.
Oil prices weakened Tuesday in volatile trade as traders weighed up more supply disruptions from political demonstrations with the potential increase in demand as the city of Shanghai slowly prepares to restart production after a prolonged Covid outbreak.
Libya’s Sharara field, which can pump 300,000 barrels a day, has been closed due to a wave of protests, with the OPEC member saying it could not deliver oil from its biggest field.
By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.4% lower at $106.08 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 1.1% to $111.84. Both benchmarks gained more than 1% in the previous session after hitting their highest level since March 28.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,980.30/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.0793.