Futures Pointing To Modestly Higher Open On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - After ending yesterday's choppy trading session narrowly mixed. Stocks may move to the upside in early trading on Tuesday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a modestly higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.2 percent.

The markets may continue to benefit from recent upward momentum, which has led stocks higher over the past several sessions and lifted the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 to new record highs.

Traders also continue to keep an eye on trade talks between the U.S. and China in Stockholm ahead of Friday's "reciprocal tariff" deadline.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that most trading partners that do not negotiate separate trade deals would soon face tariffs of 15 percent to 20 percent on their exports to the United States.

Overall trading activity may remain somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, the announcement could impact the outlook for rates.

The Labor Department's monthly jobs report is also likely to be in focus in the coming days along with earnings news from Magnificent Seven members Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META).

Shortly after the start of trading, the Conference Board is due to release its report on consumer confidence in the month of July. The consumer confidence index is expected to rise to 95.8 in July after falling to 93.0 in June.

The Labor Department is also scheduled to release its report on job openings in the month of June. Job openings are expected to decrease to 7.400 million in June from 7.769 million in May.

After moving modestly higher early in the session, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance over the course of the trading day on Monday. Despite the choppy trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

The Nasdaq rose 70.27 points or 0.3 percent to 21,178.58 and the S&P 500 inched up 1.13 points or less than a tenth of percent to 6,389.77, while the narrower Dow edged down 64.36 points or 0.1 percent to 44,837.56.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in another mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.8 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.2 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 1.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.5 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are rising $0.39 to $67.10 a barrel after surging $1.55 to $66.71 a barrel on Monday. Meanwhile, after slumping $25.60 to $3,310 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are inching up $8.80 to $3,318.80 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 148.63 yen compared to the 148.53 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Monday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.1530 compared to yesterday's $1.1589.