By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open a touch mixed Tuesday, consolidating after Monday’s sharp gains, with investors cautious ahead of a key testimony from Fed chief Jerome Powell but encouraged by strong results from retail giant Walmart.
At 07:10 AM ET (1100 GMT), S&P 500 futures traded 5 points, or 0.2%, lower, Nasdaq futures up 3 points, or 0.1%. The Dow futures contract fell 32 points, or 0.1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 911 points, or 3.9%, higher Monday, the biggest one-day gain since April 6. The S&P 500 gained 3.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2.4%. This followed positive, but still only preliminary, news from Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) about a potential vaccine for the Covid-19 virus.
Benchmark indices are on a three-day winning streak, with the Dow at its highest level since April 29, the S&P 500 the highest since March 6, and the Nasdaq at a three-month high.
Attention will turn to the Hill later Tuesday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee, alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, on the economic stimulus programs approved so far.
In a speech last week Powell gave a sober assessment of the long-term risks to the U.S. economic outlook and the possible need for more spending programs to keep the economy afloat.
This comes as states start to reopen their economies and after the U.S. posted its lowest daily death total due to the coronavirus since late March.
The retail sector will also be in focus Tuesday, after giant Walmart (NYSE:WMT) posted strong quarterly numbers, thanks to a doubling of e-commerce sales. Walmart stock climbed over 4% premarket.
Earlier Tuesday, Home Depot (NYSE:HD) stock fell 3% premarket despite the company reporting a sharp rise in first-quarter sales, as profits were weighed down by extra costs related to the pandemic.
On Monday JC Penney (NYSE:JCP) said it will permanently close nearly 30% of its 846 stores as part of a restructuring plan under bankruptcy protection.
Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) will also be in the spotlight after the resignation of streaming chief Kevin Mayer to become TikTok CEO. Mayer was instrumental in the development of Disney Plus, the company’s hit streaming service that launched in November.
Oil futures were mixed ahead of the expiry of the monthly WTI contract later Tuesday. However, the losses are small compared with the turmoil of last month when the lack of delivery storage resulted in the contract closing sharply in negative territory.
At 7:10 AM ET, U.S. crude June futures traded 0.4% higher at $31.77 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.1% to $34.78.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,736.75/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.0965, up 0.5%.