Wall Street Might Open Slight Positive

Earnings news is likely to be in focus on Tuesday. Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open slightly positive.

On the U.S. economic front, traders are likely to keep an eye on the Home Price Index, House Price reports as well as Consumer Confidence reports.

3M (MMM), BP (BP), General Electric (GE), Hasbro (HAS), and UPS (UPS) are scheduled to report earnings today.

Asian shares finished mostly higher, while European shares are down.

As of 7.55 am ET, the Dow futures were adding 1.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 3.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were gaining 12.75 points.

The U.S. major indices finished mostly higher on Monday. While the Dow edged down 61.92 points or 0.2 percent to 33,981.57, the Nasdaq advanced 121.97 points or 0.9 percent to 14,138.78 and the S&P 500 rose 7.45 points or 0.2 percent to 4,187.62.

On the economic front, the Redbook for the week, a measure of comparable store sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores, will be published at 8.55 am ET. In the prior week, the Stores Sales were up 13.5 percent.

Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for February will be released at 9.00 am ET. The consensus is for 1.1 percent, while it was up 1.2 percent in the previous month.

Federal Housing Finance Agency or FHFA House Price Index for February will be revealed at 9.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.9 percent, while it was up 1.0 percent in January.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence for April will be released at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for 112.0, while it was up 109.7 in March.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Manufacturing Index for April will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for 20, while it was up 17 in the prior month.

Two-year floating-rate note or FRN auction will be held at 11.00 am ET. The seven-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

The Fed Money Supply for March is scheduled at 1.00 pm ET. The M2 money supply was $269.7 billion.

Asian stocks ended flat to mostly higher on Tuesday. Chinese shares ended little changed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index finished marginally higher at 3,442.61 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended down 11.29 points at 28,941.54.

Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei average dropped 134.34 points, or 0.46 percent, to 28,991.89 as the country struggles with containing the Covid-19 pandemic. The broader Topix index closed down 14.60 points, or 0.76 percent, at 1,903.55.

Australian markets fell but ended well off their day’s lows amid renewed concerns over a surge in coronavirus cases in countries like India, Japan and Brazil. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 ended down 11.80 points, or 0.17 percent, at 7,033.80 while the broader All Ordinaries index slid 12.30 points, or 0.17 percent, to 7,295.50.

European shares are trading lower. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is declining 12.99 points or 0.21 percent. The German DAX is losing 61/86 points or 0.40 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is down 18.63 points or 0.26 percent.

The Swiss Market Index is sliding 74.02 points or 0.67 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is falling 0.29 percent.

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