Futures Point To Lower Open For Wall Street

(RTTNews) - On a lean day of economic announcements, after the the Presidents' Day holiday, geopolitical development might get focus on Tuesday. The personal income and spending and other Fed's preferred inflation readings is also will be of interest to investors.

In the Asian trading session, gold extended losses to dip below $4,900 an ounce. The dollar strengthened while oil prices fell on oversupply concerns.

Asian shares finished mixed, while European shares finished mostly up.

As of 7.30 am ET, the Dow futures were down 93.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 24.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were falling 191.75 points.

The U.S. major averages finished broadly up. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 50.48 points or 0.2 percent to 22,546.67, the S&P 500 inched crept up 3.41 points or 0.1 percent to 6,836.17 and the Dow inched up 48.95 points or 0.1 percent to 49,500.93.

On the economic front, the retails sales for January is scheduled at 8.30 am ET.

The Empire State Manufacturing Index for February will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 7.0, while it was up 7.7 in the prior month.

The Business Inventories for December is expected at 10.00 am ET. In the prior month, the inventories were up 0.1%.

The Housing Market Index February will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 38, while it was up 37.

The 52-week Treasury bill auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

Fed Governor Michael Barr will speak on 'Artificial Intelligence and the Labor Market' before the New York Association for Business Economics at 12.45 pm ET.

San Francisco Fed Bank President Mary Daly will speak on AI and the economy and participates in moderated conversation before economic forum co-hosted by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and San Jose State University at 2.30 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday. Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Japanese markets ended lower. The Nikkei average dipped 0.42 percent to 56,566.49. The broader Topix index settled 0.68 percent lower at 3,761.55.

Australian markets eked out modest gains. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 edged up by 0.24 percent to 8,958.90. The broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.20 percent higher at 9,182.50.