Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Monday, as oil prices dropped after major oil producing countries failed to agree on an output freeze at a meeting in Doha on Sunday.
The blue-chip Dow futures were down 0.24%, the S&P 500 futures slid 0.31%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.25%.
Oil prices tumbled after Iran decided not to attend this weekend’s meeting in Qatar to discuss a potential production freeze.
Iran\'s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that a production freeze will not help the country benefit from the lifting of international sanctions.
In response, Saudi Arabia vowed not to freeze production unless other major producers did the same.
Shares in oil and gas giant BP (LON:BP) were down 1.66% in pre-market trade, while rival company Chevron (NYSE:CVX) plummeted 2.26%.
The financial sector was also set to be in focus, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) scheduled to report quarterly results before the open.
Other U.S. companies scheduled to release earnings on Monday included PepsiCon Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).
In other news, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Verizon's bid for Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) was boosted after potential bidders such as Time, Alphabet, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and AT&T (NYSE:T) exited the race.
No major U.S. economic reports were scheduled to be released on Monday. Optimism over the strength of the U.S. economy wavered on Friday after reports showed that U.S. industrial production fell more than expected in March and consumer sentiment deteriorated slightly this month.