By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Tuesday, consolidating after a positive start to the year with investors set to digest more quarterly corporate earnings from the influential banking sector.
At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the Dow futures contract was down 50 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures traded 8 points, or 0.2% lower, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 35 points, or 0.3%.
Trading returns to Wall Street after Monday’s holiday for Martin Luther King Day, with investors looking to maintain the positive sentiment seen so far this year amid optimism that there will be a soft economic landing as the Federal Reserve slows the pace of its rate hikes.
The three main indices have traded higher in the first two weeks of the year, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 3.5%, the broad-based S&P 500 up 4.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite leading the way, up nearly 6%.
Investors are the most underweight on U.S. equities since 2005, according to Bank of America’s global fund manager survey released earlier Tuesday. This suggests there is plenty of upside if confidence fully returns to Wall Street.
In terms of economic data, investors will be hopeful of a reasonably positive release of the NY Empire State manufacturing index, after a key German monthly confidence gauge rebounded in January.
The ZEW think-tank's forward-looking sentiment index for Europe's largest economy jumped to 16.9 for the month, up from -23.3 in December, returning to positive territory for the first time since February 2022 when the war in Ukraine began.
The news out of China was less optimistic, as growth in the second-largest economy in the world in 2022 slumped to one of its worst levels in nearly half a century.
That said, gross domestic product grew 2.9% in October-December from a year earlier, exceeding market expectations of a 1.8% gain.
Turning to the corporate sector, all eyes will be on quarterly results from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) early in the session, while United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) is scheduled to report after the market close.
Oil prices traded higher Tuesday, with investors digesting the Chinese growth data amid continued optimism about a recovery in the country's fuel demand this year.
Also of interest, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries releases its latest analysis later in the session, and traders will be looking for any change in the cartel’s demand forecast for the year.
By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.5% higher at $80.47 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.2% to $85.45. There was no settlement on Monday for the U.S. contract.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,915.45/oz, while EUR/USD rose 0.2% to 1.0832.