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Investing.com – U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Tuesday, handing back some of the previous session’s gains ahead of keenly-awaited testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
At 7:05 AM ET (1105 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 140 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 15 points, or 0.4%, lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 15 points, or 0.1%.
Powell and Yellen will appear before the House Financial Services Committee later Tuesday, starting two days of congressional hearings aimed at assessing the economic policy response to the Covid-19 crisis.
The Fed chief will reiterate the central bank’s plan to support the recovery “for as long as it takes”, according to the release of his prepared testimony, even while acknowledging that the recovery has progressed more quickly than expected.
Financial markets have started to position for the Fed’s first interest rate hike coming before 2024, as the central bank guided towards at its last meeting, on the belief that the recently approved massive stimulus package combined with the very accommodative easy money policy will lead to an overheated economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.3% higher Monday, the S&P 500 ended up 0.7%, just around 1% off its record closing high, while the Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.2%.
Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of the market’s bottom caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, both the S&P 500 and DJIA have advanced 80% and the Nasdaq Composite has gained just over 90%.
In the corporate sector, AstraZeneca ADR (NASDAQ:AZN) dropped premarket after a U.S. health agency casted doubts about the positive results of the drugmaker’s recent Covid-19 vaccine trial, saying it may have used “outdated information.” This will raise concerns about the likelihood of its emergency usage approval in the important U.S. market.
Also of interest will be the release of GameStop’s (NYSE:GME) first-quarter earnings after the closing bell, the first report from the video game retailer since it the much followed meme stock benefited from a substantial short squeeze.
Economic data will center around the housing market, with February’s new home sales due at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT). These are expected to show a 6.5% decline from the prior month.
Oil prices traded sharply lower Tuesday, the day after Germany, the largest consumer of crude in Europe, confirmed that it would be extending its mobility restrictions to combat the third wave of the virus currently hitting the continent.
U.S. crude futures traded 4.6% lower at $58.75 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 4.6% to $61.67.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,740.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.4% lower at 1.1884.
