(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were flat to marginally higher on Tuesday as caution set in ahead of a set of economic data releases and as investors braced for any insights into the incoming Trump administration’s policies.
At 5:42 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 32 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 6.5 points, or 0.11% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 20.25 points, or 0.09%.
Top on investors radar will be the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey for November and the Institute for Supply Management’s data on services activity for December, both of which are due at 10 a.m. ET.
The key non-farm payrolls figure is also due later in the week and any signs of continued resilience in the economy is likely to push back expectations on the pace of the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing cycle this year.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has risen since early December and is trading at 4.6% – near its highest level since May 2024.
Traders see the central bank taking a dovish stance for the first time this year in June, as per the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, after the Fed forecast 50 basis points worth of rate cuts in 2025. Minutes from the central bank’s December meeting are due on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, comments from Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin are awaited. He and his colleagues have widely cautioned against inflation risks and the need to keep borrowing costs restrictive for longer as Trump takes charge of the Oval office later this month.
In the previous session, the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed short of one-week highs after President-elect Donald Trump’s denial of a report that his team was exploring less aggressive tariff policies, spewed uncertainty among market participants about his plans.
Analysts widely say Trump’s campaign pledges such as tax cuts, tariffs and loose regulation if implemented could invigorate the economy, although it could increase upside risk to inflation and slow down the pace of the Fed’s easing cycle. Further, his tariff plans if acted upon could also spark a trade war among the country’s top partners.
Among premarket movers, Nvidia rose 1.6% a day after the second-largest listed U.S. company unveiled new products and partnerships at a major annual tech conference in Las Vegas.
Micron Technology rose 5.4% after Nvidia boss Jensen Huang said the chipmaker was providing memory for the AI-bellwether’s GeForce RTX 50 Blackwell family of gaming chips.
Self-driving technology maker Aurora Innovation jumped 44.4% after announcing a long-term partnership with Nvidia and Germany’s Continental to deploy driverless trucks at scale.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
