U.S. futures fall as U.S., Greece worries dominate; Dow Jones down 0.40%

Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday, as concerns over U.S. fiscal policy continued to weigh, while fresh worries over the handling of Greece's debt troubles dented market sentiment.

Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.40% drop, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.52% decline, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.53% loss.

At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund failed to agree on a long-term plan to reduce Greece's debt, preventing the disbursement of immediate aid to Athens.

They gave Greece until 2016 to cut the deficit to 2% of gross domestic product, but put off until November 20 a decision on how to cover additional Greek needs of as much as EUR32.6 billion and left unclear whether the IMF will continue to contribute.

Markets also remained jittery amid ongoing concerns over the U.S. fiscal cliff, automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1 unless lawmakers can reach an agreement, which could threaten U.S. and global growth.

Tech stocks were expected to be active, as Microsoft and Google's Motorola Mobility unit were to square off on Tuesday at a trial with strategic implications for the smartphone patent wars and which could reveal financial information the two companies usually keep under wraps.

Shares in Microsoft tumbled 1.84% in pre-market trade.

Vodafone was also set to trend lower in the U.S., as shares plunged 4.17 in early trading after the company posted a 1.4% fall in organic service revenue in the second quarter, due to a sharp slowdown in its southern European business.

The British firm wrote down the value of its business in Spain and Italy by USD9.3 billion and lowered its full-year outlook.

In the financial sector, Goldman Sachs was reported to be quitting the South Korean asset management business, just five years after entering the highly competitive market.

Elsewhere in company news, PepsiCo was reportedly is in talks to sign a bottling agreement in Myanmar, ramping up the competition with Coca-Cola.

Other stocks in focus included Cisco Systems, The Home Depot and The TJX Companies, all due to report earnings later in the day.

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were sharply lower. The EURO STOXX 50 dropped 0.45%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.57%, Germany's DAX retreated 0.71%, while Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.65%.

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.13%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.18%.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release official data on the federal budget balance.