Investing.com –Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Tuesday as market players focused on a European Commission (EC) tax ruling on Apple and looked ahead to data on consumer confidence and housing prices.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 1 point, or 0.01%, by 11:06AM GMT, or 7:06AM ET, the S&P 500 futures slipped 1 point, or 0.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 9 points, or 0.19%.
Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) slumped close to 2% in pre-market trade after the European Commission (EC) ruled against its tax arrangements in Ireland. The EC determined that the Irish government granted the iPhone maker undue tax benefits and may have to repay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion).
In other negative company news, shares of Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) tumbled more than 11% before the opening bell as Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), the maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, announced that it was walking away from talks to acquire the U.S. chocolate maker.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve (Fed) vice chairman Stanley Fischer commented in an interview with Bloomberg that the U.S. was “very close” to full employment, but made no remarks on the specific timing of the next rate hike.
As investors looked ahead to the publication of consumer confidence for August at 14:00GMT, or, 10:00AM ET, and S&P/Case-Shiller home price data at 13:00GMT, or 9:00AM ET, Fed fund futures are currently pricing in a 21% chance of a rate hike by September. December odds for an increase were at 55.2%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Ahead of the data, the dollar marked fresh two-week highs on Tuesday, with gold struggling near 5-week lows.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, gained 0.23% to 95.75 by 11:19AM GMT, or 7:13AM ET, while gold for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 0.33%, or $4.35, to $1,322.75.
In oil markets, crude prices were higher on Tuesday, rebounding from steep overnight losses as market players shifted their focus to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report later on Tuesday at 20:30GMT, or 16:30PM ET. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.62% to $47.27 by 11:21AM GMT, or 7:21AM ET, while Brent oil traded up 0.30% to $49.60.