Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday, as disappointing corporate earnings from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) weighed.
During early morning hours in New York, the blue-chip Dow futures lost 72 points, or 0.41%, the S&P 500 futures dropped 9 points, or 0.42%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures tumbled 54 points, or 1.16%.
Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) tumbled 6.2% in pre-market trade after the iPhone maker's forecast for the next quarter disappointed investors, despite reporting better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter.
Apple projected fiscal fourth quarter revenue in a range between $49 billion to $51 billion, below market expectations of $51.15 billion. Total revenue for the third quarter totaled $49.6 billion, beating estimates of $49.3 billion, while net income of $1.85 a share topped forecasts for $1.81.
Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones in the third quarter, up 35% from a year ago, but trailing estimates for around 49.5 million.
Meanwhile, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) tumbled 4.3% after the tech giant posted its biggest quarterly loss ever on a huge write-down tied to its Nokia (HEL:NOK1V) purchase.
Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) declined 2.2% after forecasting lower-than-expected revenue for the current quarter.
Boeing (NYSE:BA), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), American Express (NYSE:AXP), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) are due to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday.
Worries over the corporate earnings season mounted on Tuesday following disappointing reports from IBM (NYSE:IBM) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX).
Meanwhile, commodity producers looked set to decline as gold, copper and oil prices resumed their drop.
The U.S. is to publish figures on existing home sales for June shortly after Wednesday's opening bell as traders look for further indications on the strength of the economy and the timing of an interest rate hike.
The National Association of Realtors is expected to report that existing home sales rose by 1.2% in June to 5.40 million units, following a 5.1% increase in May.
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