Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City
U. S. stock index futures were little changed on Tuesday as investors assessed quarterly earnings reports, while seeking more clarity on President Donald Trump’s economic policies.
* Trump’s focus on protectionism over fiscal stimulus since taking office on Friday has disappointed investors, who had driven up Wall Street to record highs following his election.
* Wall Street dipped on Monday after Trump warned of border taxes and signed orders to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific trade deal.
* The dollar turned positive after falling to a seven-week low on Tuesday. Oil prices were flat, while gold declined for the first time in four days.
* Data due on Tuesday includes a report on existing home sales, which likely fell to 5.52 million in December from 5.61 million the previous month.
* Shares of General Motors (GM.N), Ford (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU.N) rose in premarket trading. Trump is expected to meet the executives of the auto makers to discuss U.S. jobs.
* Johnson & Johnson dropped 2.5 percent to $111.11 after the company reported a quarterly revenue that missed analysts’ expectations.
* Apple (AAPL.O) was off 0.71 percent on a Barclays downgrade to “equal-weight” from “overweight”. Of the 49 brokerages covering the stock, only eight have a “hold” or equivalent rating.
* Yahoo (YHOO.O) rose 2.9 percent to $43.54 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue and said the sale of its core internet business to Verizon (VZ.N) should be completed in the second quarter.
Futures snapshot at 6:54 a.m. ET:
* Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 4 points, or 0.02 percent, with 17,054 contracts changing hands.
* S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent, with 76,667 contracts traded.
* Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 1.25 points, or 0.02 percent, on volume of 14,557 contracts.
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