Dow futures slip; Caterpillar earnings, JOLTs data in focus
Investing.com — U.S. stock futures weakened Tuesday, handing back some of the recent gains as investors awaited a deluge of megacap earnings as well as important economic data.
By 06:30 ET (10:30 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 85 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded 10 points, or 0.2%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 42 points, or 0.3%.
The benchmark Wall Street indices closed modestly higher Monday, ending the month of July which saw the broad-based S&P 500 and the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average both gain more than 3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced over 4%.
Strong earnings have helped boost stocks, which have already been rising this year on the prospect of the Federal Reserve nearing the end of its interest rate increases.
More than 160 S&P 500 constituents are scheduled to release their quarterly results this week, adding to the more than 250 that have already reported. Of those companies that have already disclosed, 80% beat earnings expectations, according to FactSet data.
The pharma giants Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Merck (NYSE:MRK) are set to release results before the bell, as well as ride-hailing company Uber (NYSE:UBER), but a lot of focus will be on the earnings of Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), as the construction equipment maker is often seen as a bellwether of the world economy.
Coffee chain Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) are set to offer up quarterly numbers after the close.
Elsewhere, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is likely to attract attention after the Financial Times reported that the Facebook parent is preparing to release new artificial intelligence-powered chatbots that have different personalities, in an attempt to boost user
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