Investing.com - Wall Street stock futures pointed to lower open ahead of a small smatter of data on Tuesday and as market players made adjustments ahead of more major events later in the week.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 33 points, or 0.16%, by 7:09AM ET (11:09GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 5 points, or 0.20%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 12 points, or 0.22%.
February factory orders will be the main data highlight for investors on Tuesday.
However, although markets tend to pay little attention to the U.S. trade deficit data, the release on Tuesday will garner more protagonism as investors attempt to parse through the figures for hints on what it means for trade partnerships with China and other countries amid concern over the Trump administration's protectionist policies.
The data will arrive just prior to the kick-off on Thursday of a two-day meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat.
Last week, Trump tweeted that the meeting, which is expected to cover differences over trade and North Korea, "will be a very difficult one."
Also on Tuesday’s calendar, Federal Reserve (Fed) governor Daniel Tarullo was scheduled to give his “Departing Thoughts” at 4:30PM ET (22:30GMT) just one day ahead of his final day at the U.S. central bank. Tarullo submitted his letter of resignation February 10 to President Donald Trump and will have his last day at the central bank on April 5.
Tarullo’s final speech, accompanied by a Q&A will be the last of a long line of Fed comments in the last two weeks as market players prepare to assess employment data this week culminating in the jobs report on Friday.
Markets are currently pricing the next Fed rate hike to come at the June 14 meeting with odds around 50%, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Though the U.S. employment report normally carries the risk of changing the Fed outlook for monetary policy, ING economists suggested that Friday’s nonfarm payrolls could disappoint but that the “Fed probably won’t really care”.
They explained that there may be a correction lower to overall payrolls last month due to construction jobs being created earlier in February due to warm weather, suggesting that March would see a corresponding weakness. “But it would have to be dreadful to ruffle feathers at the Fed,” these experts remarked.
ING also doesn’t expect the report to push the Fed to an even more hawkish stance.
“Wage growth needs to head upwards to excite the hawks: don't expect that this week,” they said.
Meanwhile, oil prices edged forward on Tuesday as markets looked ahead to the American Petroleum Institute’s its weekly report on crude inventories at 4:30PM ET (20:30GMT) .
U.S. crude futures gained 0.50% to $50.49 by 7:09AM ET (11:09GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.55% to $53.41.