Investing.com - Wall Street opened flat to lower on Tuesday as investors priced in company news while looking ahead to President Donald Trump’s announcement on the Iran nuclear and set about pricing in company .
At 9:31AM ET (13:31GMT), the Dow Jones slipped 19 points, or 0.08%, the S&P 500 dropped 5 points, or 0.17%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded down 8 points, or 0.11%.
Trump is widely expected to pull out of the 2015 international nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions against Tehran which in turn could impact Iranian oil exports.
Iran, which is a major Middle East oil producer and member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), resumed its role as a major oil exporter in January 2016 when international sanctions against Tehran were lifted in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program.
Trump will make the announcement from Washington at 2:00PM ET (18:00GMT) on Tuesday.
Oil prices pulled back from three-and-a-half year highs reached a day earlier in what was largely attributed to be a “buy the rumor, sell the news” market move as the announcement comes several days ahead of the original May 12 deadline.
U.S. crude futures slumped 0.68% to $70.25 by 9:32AM ET (13:32GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.33% to $75.92.
Meanwhile, in a relatively light day for economic data with just the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey (JOLTs) to be released at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT), the dollar continued to show strength against major rivals, hitting fresh four-month highs.
At 9:34AM ET (13:34GMT) Tuesday, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose 0.48% to 93.05.
Earlier on Tuesday, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell downplayed risks to financial markets from policymakers’ plans to gradually raise interest rates.
Powell promised to “communicate our policy strategy as clearly and transparently as possible to help align expectations and avoid market disruptions”.
“Fed policy normalization has proceeded without disruption to financial markets, and market participants' expectations for policy seem reasonably well aligned with policymakers' expectations...suggesting that markets should not be surprised by our actions if the economy evolves in line with expectations,” he said.
In the meantime, traders priced in the recent slew of earnings reports. Among the biggest moves, Hertz (NYSE:HTZ) crashed 10% as the rental car company posted a $1.58 loss per share, wider than the expected $0.98 loss.
Zillow (NASDAQ:ZG) was also off around 5% as the real estate website operator suffered from a disappointing revenue forecast.
To the upside, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) jumped around 9% as the firm beat sales estimates and raised its full-year outlook.
Dean Foods (NYSE:DF) also gained nearly 7% after smashed forecasts on both the top and bottom line.
In other company news, shares in Snap (NYSE:SNAP) gained around 4% as it announced that its chief financial officer Andrew Vollero was to be replaced by former Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) exec Tim Stone.
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was reportedly making preparations for a possible all-cash bid for 21st Century Fox (NASDAQ:FOX)'s entertainment assets. Fox had an agreement to sell those assets to Disney for $52.4 billion in stock.
Although the focus after the close will likely be on Disney (NYSE:DIS)’s earnings, other notable firms releasing numbers include Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA), Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY), Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH), Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR), Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST), and TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP).