Wall St set for muted open on corporate earnings, trade talks
At 08:31 a.m. ET, S&P 500 E-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.03%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 12.25 points, or 0.05%, and Dow E-minis were down 50 points, or 0.11%.
U.S. stock futures trimmed early losses after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced plans to meet his Chinese counterpart next week, potentially discussing an extension to the August 12 deadline set for tariffs on China.
With little more than a week to go before the August 1 deadline for most U.S. trading partners, Bessent emphasized on Monday that the administration was prioritizing the quality of trade deals over speed.
Meanwhile, trade talks have hit a roadblock as the European Union weighs new countermeasures against the United States. Hopes for an interim U.S. deal with India were fading, Indian government officials said.
Wall Street's heavyweights are starting to feel the sting of tariffs. General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab saw its second-quarter core profit tumble 32% to $3 billion, blaming steep tariff costs for shaving $1.1 billion from its bottom line.
"Everyone's watching GM very closely, and the numbers did disappoint and specifically related to tariffs," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Muriel Siebert.
"The fact that they did come out and say that there's going to be a forecast based on increases in tariffs is something that is going to play out throughout the day."
The company's shares lost 2.3% in premarket trading, while peer Ford (F.N), opens new tab also dipped 0.7%.
RTX (RTX.N), opens new tab cut its 2025 profit forecast as the aerospace and defense giant took a hit from Trump's tariff war. Its shares fell 1%.
Despite trade policy uncertainty out of Washington, the resilience of the economy has propelled major indexes to fresh all-time highs.
Still, a slew of positive earnings surprises has kept markets near record territory. Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to report a healthy 6.7% jump in second-quarter profits, with Big Tech leading the charge, data compiled by LSEG showed.
Tuesday's cautious trading comes after a rollercoaster session that ended with the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab and the Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab both notching record closes. Much of the action was fueled by investors snapping up megacaps such as Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab ahead of earnings.
Google-parent Alphabet and EV-maker Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab will kick off quarterly results for the "Magnificent Seven" stocks on Wednesday.
Shares of Tesla were up 0.1% in premarket trading, having fallen about 19% so far in 2025 amid CEO Elon Musk's political involvement and challenges faced by its core business.
Following last week's mixed economic signals, traders have all but ruled out a rate cut next week and now see about a 56% chance of a reduction in September, according to the CME's FedWatch tool.
Among other movers, U.S. coal miners Peabody Energy (BTU.N), opens new tab and Warrior Met Coal (HCC.N), opens new tab were up about 5% each as China's coking coal prices surged amid market speculation about government inspections in major production hubs.
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