U.S. stock futures edged lower Tuesday, hurt by Walmart cutting profit guidance ahead of a wave of corporate earnings.
What’s happening
-
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
YM00,
-0.52%
fell 113 points, or 0.4%, to 31854. -
Futures on the S&P 500
ES00,
-0.45%
dropped 9.75 points, or 0.3%, to 3960. -
Futures on the Nasdaq 100
NQ00,
-0.56%
decreased 38 points, or 0.3%, to 12317.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
rose 91 points, or 0.28%, to 31990, the S&P 500
SPX,
increased 5 points, or 0.13%, to 3967, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
dropped 51 points, or 0.43%, to 11783.
What’s driving markets
Walmart
WMT,
late Monday cut its profit outlook, saying inflation on food has caused it to conduct more markdowns in apparel. The opposite side of that coin was Unilever
UL,
as the maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream said price rises were able to offset reduced volume.
“It was a steady start for most markets to a big earnings week, until Walmart issued a warning after hours. The stock lost 10% and there was negative read-across for the rest of the U.S. consumer sector,” said Ian Williams, strategist at U.K. broker Peel Hunt.
A massive slate of earnings includes McDonald’s,
MCD,
General Motors
GM,
Coca Cola
KO,
and after the close, tech titans Alphabet
GOOGL,
and Microsoft
MSFT,
The Federal Reserve starts its two-day interest-rate-setting meeting, and the economic calendar also includes house prices and, shortly after the open, consumer confidence and new-home sales reports.
