Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a lower open on Tuesday when Wall Street reopens its doors after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, amid a stream of concerns over global growth.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 187 points, or 0.76%, to 24,00.5 points by 6:52 AM ET (11:52 GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 21 points, or 0.80%, to 2,650.12 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 66 points, or 0.97%, to 6,727.12 points.
U.S. investors will return to the trading floor amid a string of warnings over the global economy that hit equities worldwide, as the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, officially kicked off on Tuesday.
The International Monetary Fund released its updated World Economic Outlook on Monday on the eve of the event and cut its forecasts for global growth.
“After two years of solid expansion, the world economy is growing more slowly than expected and risks are rising,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters.
The IMF explained that a bigger-than-expected slowdown in China and the euro zone had forced it to cut its outlook for this year and 2020 and warned that a failure to resolve trade tensions could further destabilize a slowing global economy.
The IMF’s downgrade on Monday came just hours after China reported its slowest quarterly economic growth since the financial crisis and its weakest annual expansion since 1990.
“Concerns over slowing global growth are starting to filter through to financial markets,” said Nick Twidale, Sydney-based analyst at Rakuten Securities Australia.
On the U.S. economic front, the partial government shutdown will postpone the publication of durable goods orders, but investors will watch the release of existing home sales due at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT).
Traders also return to their desks in a busy week for corporate earnings with no less than 60 S&P 500 companies scheduled to report this week.
Johnson & Johnson reported quarterly results ahead of the open that beat consensus on the top and bottom line. Shares (NYSE:JNJ) rose 1.2% in premarket trade despite the company giving a 2019 revenue outlook slightly below consensus.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), Travelers (NYSE:TRV), Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK), and Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) are also set to report ahead of the opening bell, while IBM (NYSE:IBM), TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) and Capital One (NYSE:COF) are among companies that will report after the market close.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six rival currencies, inched up 0.04% to 96.03 by 6:55 AM ET (11:55 GMT), while the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 3.2 basis points to 2.75%.
In commodities, gold futures were flat at $1,282.65 a troy ounce, while crude oil slumped 1.92% to $53.00 a barrel.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.