Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Tuesday as Wall Street prepared to reopen its doors after Christmas and investors looked ahead to data on consumer confidence, while a report of weak demand for Apple’s iPhone X weighed on market sentiment.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 34 points, or 0.14% by 7:04AM ET (12:04GMT), the S&P 500 futures dropped 1 point, or 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 26 points, or 0.40%
Although the U.S. stock market will be up and running on Tuesday, trade is expected to be thin with European bourses closed for Boxing Day and many market participants having closed their books for the holiday season until 2018 rolls around next week.
Amid a few economic reports set for release on Tuesday, the main focus will be on the Conference Board’s consumer confidence for December out at 10:00AM ET (15:00GMT).
In lesser reports, those traders not enjoying the holidays will also digest the S&P/Case-Shiller housing price index for October, and December manufacturing indices from the Richmond and Dallas Fed.
Ahead of the releases, the dollar held steady against other major currencies on Tuesday, wavering around the unchanged mark. At 7:04AM ET (12:04GMT), the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, last inched up 0.09% at 92.96.
In company news, shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were off a little more than 2% in pre-market trade on Tuesday after a report from Taiwan's Economic Daily suggested that the tech firm will slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X to 30 million units from an initial 50 million. The paper cited unidentified sources.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's Google was also reported to be planning to launch brick-and-mortar stores in India to boost sales of its Pixel smartphones.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices headed slightly lower on Tuesday despite news that U.S. shale production had taken a pause. According to data released later Friday from Baker Hughes, the number of U.S. rigs targeting oil remained unchanged at 747 a week earlier.
Still, concerns remain that U.S. crude will continue to boom in 2018, undercutting OPEC’s push to drain a global supply glut with output curbs.
Adding additional downward pressure to crude prices, the North Sea Forties pipeline, which plays an important role in the global oil market, is being tested following repairs and full flows should resume in early January, its operator Ineos said on Monday. The halt of the line earlier this month sent prices surging.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.10% to $58.41 by 7:05AM ET (12:05GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.22% to $64.59.