Futures Rise Ahead Key Economic Data

U.S. stocks futures gained on Tuesday, pointing a rebound after sharp losses yesterday as investors look ahead to some key data on house prices, house sales and consumer sentiment, while the Wall Street giant, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is expected to announce its earnings after the evening bell ring.

At last check, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 35 points, or 0.3%, to 12,906.

S&P 500 Index futures also gained 4.1 points, or 0.3%, to 1,366.802, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed up10.50 points, or 0.4% to 2,660.75.

Investors will be closely focused on Federal Reserve’s open market committee meeting, slated to start in the evening. The meeting, which will last for two days, is expected to provide some hint on Fed’s monetary policy. The Fed has adopted wait and watch policy; and its tone has been less dovish with regard to another round of quantitative easing measures since February.  As a result, investors have struggled to find a direction for investing in an uncertain global economic environment.

In an emailed comments, Fawad Razaqzada, market strategist at GFT Markets, wrote  “While recent U.S. economic data has weakened significantly, it is not currently bad enough to warrant the announcement of further quantitative easing; However, with so much uncertainty surrounding the euro zone, and with U.S. employment and housing both on shaky ground, the FOMC is likely to leave the door open to some form of stimulus program. If they don’t, we can expect further stock market weakness.”

Moving onto U.S. economic data front, at 9 a.m. Eastern, Case-Shiller home prices for February is expected to be released. At 10 a.m. Eastern, the consumer confidence index for April and new home sales for March is slated for a release.

Stocks that are likely to trade actively on Tuesday are Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG). Shares of Big Lots plunged 14% in after-hours trade on Monday after the discount retailer warned that company expects its first quarter same- stores sales to decline. Shares of Netflix will be also under pressure after tumbling 15% during after-hours trade on Monday as the company’s subscriber base took a beating in the first quarter due to hike in prices and increased competition.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.