By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Tuesday as optimism grows over progress on the reopening, with another wave of corporate earnings due.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow futures contract was up 70 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures traded 10 points, or 0.2%, higher, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 45 points, or 0.3%.
The major indices posted strong gains Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising almost 200 points, or 0.5%, the S&P 500 climbed 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite was the relative outperformer, jumping 1.4%.
Helping the tone was more progress on the reopening and signs the vaccine rollout is slowing the spread of new cases in the U.S. New York City and Los Angeles announced all children will return to public school classrooms in-person in September, while the United States last week reported the lowest number of new Covid-19 cases in nearly a year.
There are a number of companies set to report later Tuesday, including the likes of AutoZone (NYSE:AZO), Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL), Agilent (NYSE:A), Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN).
Elsewhere, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is also likely to be in the spotlight following reports that the retail giant is close to a deal to buy MGM Studios for between $8.5 billion and $9 billion. It would mark Amazon’s biggest acquisition since it bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion.
The recovery in the price of Bitcoin, now up 2%, means the likes of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), a big holder of the digital currency, and crypto-exchange Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) could be in focus.
Economic data due Tuesday includes new home sales for April at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT). Although the housing market has been very strong, there are signs that it’s cooling and analysts expect a figure of 970,000, falling by 50,000 or nearly 5%, from the 1,021,000 new home sales the prior month.
Additionally, consumer confidence in the U.S. may erode a little in May, with the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index likely to fall to 119.4 from 121.7 in April.
Oil prices edged lower Tuesday, consolidating after recent strong gains as traders track progress over the potential return of Iranian supply to the international crude markets.
Talks between Iran and world powers will continue in Vienna this week to resolve outstanding issues on the 2015 nuclear accord, which may pave the way for the removal of U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude flows.
Investors now await U.S. crude oil supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due later in the day.
Crude futures traded 0.1% lower at $65.95 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.1% to $68.30, with both contracts rallying more than 6% in the previous two sessions.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,883.60/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% higher at 1.2248.