Stock futures were little changed Tuesday, with traders readying for earnings reports from major companies after the benchmark posted its best day in more than a month. Futures tied to the S&P 500 sat near their flatline. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dipped 30 points, or 0.1%. Nasdaq-100 futures lost 0.3%. Google-parent Alphabet and Tesla are due to report earnings after the bell. Those reports will mark the Street’s first look at how major tech-related names fared during the second quarter. Meanwhile, General Motors posted second-quarter results that easily beat analyst expectations and boosted shares about 5%. UPS missed on the top and bottom lines, sending the stock down 7%. Those moves follow a winning day on Wall Street, as technology stocks rebounded from last week’s sell-off. The S&P 500 rose more than 1% for its best session since early June, while the Dow ticked higher by 0.3%. Given this theme, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite outperformed with a 1.6% climb. The S&P 500 was led higher by the information technology and communication services sectors, which gained roughly 2% and 1.2%, respectively. The small cap-focused Russell 2000 added 1.7% in the session. This built on last week’s gain, which was seen as a sign of traders moving money to this cohort from Big Tech names that have seen monster gains this year. The shift to small caps also comes as investors grow increasingly excited that the Federal Reserve will soon begin lowering interest rates, a move seen as particularly helpful for smaller and more cyclically oriented companies. Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist at the Blue Chip Daily Trend Report, said the rotation from megacap tech to small-cap stocks seen last week is still prevalent. He said Monday’s broad advance is an attempt from investors to get ahead of potentially positive earning reports over the next few days and the personal consumption expenditures price index reading due at the end of the week. “I do believe this rotation story is still intact,” Tentarelli said. “If we get that bullish inflation report, I think you could see another leg higher in small caps and the banks.” U.S. Treasury yields were slightly lower on Tuesday as investors considered the outlook for the U.S. economy ahead of key data slated for the week. The 10-year Treasury was down by over 3 basis points at 4.226%. The yield on the 2-year Treasury was last over 1 basis point lower at 4.502%. Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Tuesday after Wall Street looked past political uncertainty to log gains overnight, with China stocks leading declines. India’s Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex were both down nearly 0.8% after the country unveiled its first budget under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third five-year term. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lowered the fiscal deficit target to 4.9% of the GDP from 5.1% proposed in the interim budget. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.9% as of its final hour of trading, while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 2.14% to end at 3,439.88. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.01% to close at 39,594.39 and the broad-based Topix advanced 0.21% to end at 2,833.39. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.39% to end at 2,774.29, while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.27% to close at 812.12. South Korea’s producer price index in June rose 2.5% year on year, compared to a 2.3% rise in May. Taiwan’s Taiex rose 2.76% higher to end at 22,871.84, breaking its four-day losing streak, with real estate, industrials and tech leading gains, according to data from LSEG. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.5% to end at 7,971.1. Crude oil futures on Tuesday dropped to the lowest level in more than a month, as the market has largely ignored recent tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Houthi militants in Yemen. West Texas Intermediate September contract: $77.94 per barrel, down 46 cents, or 0.59%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has gained 8.7%. Brent September contract: $81.97 per barrel, down 45 cents, or 0.55%. Year to date, the global benchmark has gained 6.4%. Gold prices held steady on Tuesday while investors strapped in for U.S. economic data this week for clarity on the timeline for Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut. Spot gold was nearly unchanged at $2,396.57 per ounce, as of 0458 GMT. U.S. gold futures added 0.1% to $2,398.00.
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