U.S. futures drop ahead of data, Fed minutes
U.S. stock market futures pointed to a lower start for Wall Street Tuesday as caution prevailed following sharp gains in the previous session, with consumer confidence figures and the minutes of the latest Federal Open Market Committee among the releases on tap.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJ1U -0.56% dropped 71 points to 11,446. The fall came after the Dow Industrials rallied over 250 points, or 2.3%, on Monday, helped by relief that Hurricane Irene wasn’t more severe as well as by a slightly more optimistic outlook on the economy.
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Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index SP1U -0.65% fell 8.70 points to 1,199.40 and Nasdaq 100 futures ND1U -0.60% dropped 12.50 points to 2,207.50.
On the data front Tuesday, Case-Shiller data on home prices for June are due for release at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, followed by the Conference Board’s August consumer confidence reading.
“This is a very important release — due to the U.S. economy’s huge reliance on its consumers — which is expected to decline along with almost everything else at the moment,” said Simon Denham, CEO of Capital Spreads.
“When you’ve had stock market’s dropping so fiercely then there’s little to be confident about,” he added in an email.
At 2:00 p.m. Eastern the minutes of the August 9 Federal Open Market Committee meeting will be released.
The minutes should provide more insight into the Fed’s statement that interest rates will remain at ultra-low levels for another two years — a decision that saw three committee members dissent.
Among stocks to watch Tuesday, lighting-products group Universal Display Corp. PANL -0.95% may rise after the company said it had entered into a technology licensing deal with Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Light Co.
Dollar General Corp. DG +3.81% is also scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings, with analysts polled by FactSet Research expecting the retailer to report earnings of 48 cents a share on sales of $3.54 billion.
European markets were mostly higher Tuesday, led by a 2% gain for the FTSE 100 index UK:UKX +2.33% as the British benchmark reopened after a holiday.
Asian markets also ended the day with solid gains, including a 1.2% rise for Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average JP:NIK +1.16% .
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