Investing.com - U.S. stock markets pointed to a sharply lower open on Tuesday, as concerns surrounding global growth and weak oil prices continued to grip markets.
The blue-chip Dow futures shed 102 points, or 0.62%, by 11:45GMT, or 6:45AM ET, the S&P 500 futures dipped 13 points, or 0.66%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 29 points, or 0.67%.
Oil prices fell sharply to hit a one-week low as investors worried that a huge oversupply in crude was coinciding with a global economic slowdown, especially in China.
Brent slumped $1.22, or 3.55%, to $33.02 a barrel, while U.S. crude was down $1.06, or 3.35%, at $30.56. A day earlier, oil plunged as much as 7%, amid doubts over the likelihood of a deal between Russia and OPEC producers to cut output happening anytime soon.
In pre-market news, Google-parent Alphabet (O:GOOGL) surged 5.3% to surpass Apple (O:AAPL) as the most valuable U.S. company, after the tech giant easily beat Wall Street's quarterly profit forecasts after the closing bell on Monday, helped by strong mobile advertising sales.
On the downside, oil heavyweight BP (L:BP) was down 8% ahead of the opening bell after reporting an annual loss of $6.5 billion in 2015, its worst in 20 years amid the persistently low oil price.
Other companies reporting results on Tuesday include, Exxon Mobil (N:XOM), United Parcel Service Inc (N:UPS), Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (N:ADM), Dow Chemical Company (N:DOW) and Pfizer Inc (N:PFE), which are all due ahead of the opening bell. After the market closes, Yahoo (O:YHOO), Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (N:CMG) and Gilead Sciences (O:GILD) are on the earnings docket.
Beyond data on U.S. auto sales for January, there are no top-tier U.S. economic reports due on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, major Asian equities closed mostly lower on Tuesday, as crude oil prices slid on rekindled oversupply fears and amid mounting concerns over global economic growth.
In Europe, stock markets were down more than 1%, on course for a second straight losing session, as weak oil prices and disappointing corporate earnings weighed.