By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally lower Tuesday, consolidating after Monday’s record highs, but the overall tone remains optimistic as strong data points to a sharp economic recovery.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow futures contract was down 40 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 futures traded 8 points, or 0.2%, lower, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 32 points, or 0.2%.
The S&P 500 closed Monday up 1.4% at a record high of 4,076.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%, or 373 points, to close at an all-time high of 33,527.19, while the Nasdaq Composite ended up 1.7%.
This positive tone has been based on signs of a strong economic recovery, as illustrated by Friday’s blowout jobs report and Monday’s surge in services activity, as a successful vaccination program leads to hopes of a prompt reopening.
More evidence of this economic rebound is expected from jobs opening data for February at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT), with analysts looking for a reading of 6.99 million, which would be up from 6.917 million the prior month.
The United States has administered more than 165 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of Sunday morning and distributed nearly 208 million, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Elsewhere, Investors continue to digest President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal and the chances of it becoming reality, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for a global minimum corporate tax "to ensure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in public goods and respond to crises."
In the corporate sector, stocks likely to be in demand include those geared towards the reopening trade, including cruise operators Carnival (NYSE:CUK), which reports earnings early, and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH), which is looking for the restart of its sailings by early July.
Oil prices traded higher Tuesday, paring some of Monday’s hefty losses on expectations of bouncing global demand, but concerns still exist about the prospect of producers returning significant amounts of crude to the market over the next three months.
Late last week the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a grouping known as OPEC+, announced it was bringing back 350,000 barrels per day of supply in May, another 350,000 barrels in June and a further 400,000 barrels in July. Saudi Arabia is also set to phase out its extra voluntary cut of 1 million barrels per day during this period.
U.S. crude futures traded 1% higher at $59.26 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.9% to $62.70. Both contracts fell more than 4% on Monday.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,734.05/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1805.