By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen trading slightly lower Tuesday, consolidating from record levels, with investors keeping a wary eye on the ongoing earnings season and ahead of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 60 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded 5 points, or 0.1%, lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 14 points, or 0.1%.
All three major indices on Wall Street closed at all time highs on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 have now advanced for six straight sessions, their longest win streaks since August, while the Nasdaq Composite has finished higher on five of those six days.
These gains have been based, at least in part, on the expectation of additional stimulus from the new Biden administration. This package took a step forward Monday as House Democrats released the first draft text for key pieces of legislation that will comprise the Covid-19 relief bill.
Also helping the tone has been a largely positive earnings season so far, coupled with improving numbers on the pandemic. The United States reported a 25% drop in new cases of Covid-19 to about 825,000 last week, the biggest fall since the pandemic started, while deaths fell 2.5%.
This earnings season continues Tuesday, with the likes of chemicals leader Dupont (NYSE:DD) and tire manufacturer Goodyear (NASDAQ:GT) reporting their earnings before the opening bell, and tech giants Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) after the close.
Elsewhere, the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump begins later Tuesday. The House has charged Trump with inciting the riot at Capitol Hill last month, which resulted in five deaths, while his lawyers will argue that he did not call on people to commit violence and that the case should be dismissed.
On the economic data slate, the Federal Reserve’s favorite gauge of employment is due for release later Tuesday in the form of the Labor Department’s job openings and labor turnover release.
Oil prices edged lower Tuesday, consolidating after reaching their highest levels in 13 months on growing confidence in the recovery of fuel demand, coupled with supply curbs by the top crude producers, primarily Saudi Arabia.
Investors now await U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% lower at $57.91 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.1% to $60.63. Both contracts hit their highest levels since January 2020 earlier Tuesday, and have posted gains for the seventh consecutive session on Tuesday, the longest win streak since January 2019.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.5% to $1,843.10/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.4% higher at 1.2101.