Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday as concern over global economy dampened investor sentiment and traders eyed another leg down in oil to fresh four-week lows.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 114 points, or 0.66%, by 10:57AM GMT, or 6:57AM ET, the S&P 500 futures dropped 16 points, or 0.75%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 26 points, or 0.58%.
U.S. futures followed European stock markets down on Tuesday after International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde urged global policymakers to act and prepare contingency measures in case downside risks to the global economy materialize.
Lagarde appeared to attempt to minimize the alarmist tendency at her lecture in Frankfurt, assuring listeners that the recovery continued and insisting that the world was not in crisis.
“The not-so-good news is that the recovery remains too slow, too fragile, and risks to its durability are increasing,” she said.
Also taking a toll on risk appetite, crude continued to slide amid growing doubts that the April 17 meeting of major oil producers in Doha will lead to any concrete measures to solve the global supply glut.
Market players looked ahead to fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude that are expected to reach new record highs. The American Petroleum Institute will release its inventories report later in the day, while Wednesday’s government report could show crude stockpiles rose by 3.3 million barrels in the week ended April.
In the meantime, U.S. crude futures slipped 0.14% to $35.65 by 10:58AM GMT, or 6:58AM ET, while Brent oil lost 0.29% to $37.58.
Additionally, while waiting for the appearance of Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen on Thursday, markets digested new remarks from Chicago Fed president Charles Evans who stated on Tuesday that financial markets were more pessimistic in their expectations than the U.S. central bank and repeated his call for two rate hikes this year.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.14% at 94.72, still close to last week’s five-and-a-half month low of 94.30.
On the macro front, investors will gauge activity in the U.S. services sector in March, along with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary report (JOLTS) for February at 14:00GMT, or 10:00AM ET.
Markets will also eye the February trade deficit data which will be reported at 12:30GMT or 8:30AM ET.
In company news, Allergan Plc (NYSE:AGN) tumbled more than 20% in the pre-market as new U.S. inversion rules threatened to derail its merger with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). The Dow Jones component rose more than 3%.
Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) is scheduled to report earnings.