Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Monday as markets continued to digest President Donald Trump’s inaugural speech and investors looked towards earnings as the only scheduled references for the start of the week.
The blue-chip Dow futures slipped 9 points, or 0.05%, by 6:50AM ET (11:50GMT), the S&P 500 futures dropped 3 points, or 0.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gave up 9 points, or 0.19%.
With little detail on economic policies provided by Trump in his first speech, investors may look to the first official press briefing of his administration at 1:30PM ET (18:30GMT) in the hopes of gleaming an idea of his initial plans.
As no major economic reports scheduled for release on Monday, market participants were likely to focus on earnings out throughout the day.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) reported mixed results as earnings-per-share settled at $0.04, topping forecasts for $0.02, but revenue fell 20.9% year-on-year to $4.02 billion, coming in under estimates for $4.06 billion.
McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) will also release its quarterly report before the market open, kicking off a week in which 30% of the Dow components will report fourth quarter results.
Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) will also be in focus as it reports its earnings after the market close.
In the meantime, the dollar started the week off lower as the lack of clear details on future policies caused investors to sell off the greenback.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.39% at 100.38 by 6:51AM ET (11:51GMT), after falling to 100.17 earlier, a level not seen since December 8.
Gold prices rallied to the strongest level in around two months on Monday, as the U.S. dollar moved lower and investors opted to take risk off the table, making the safe haven precious metal.
Prices of the yellow metal touched a session high of $1,219.25 a troy ounce, a level not seen since November 22. At 6:51AM ET (11:51GMT), it was last at $1,212.65, up $7.75, or 0.64%.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved lower on Monday as prospects of rising U.S. production weighed on the market.
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week jumped by 29 to 551, the largest weekly increase since a recovery in the rig count began in June and the highest level in around 14 months
U.S. crude futures fell 1.05% to $52.66 by 6:54AM ET (11:54GMT), while Brent oil lost 0.70% to $55.10.