By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open slightly lower Tuesday, giving back some of Monday’s outsized gains, as investors turn their attention back to the impact on the economy from the Covid-19 virus after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
At 7 AM ET (1100 GMT), S&P 500 Futures traded 7 points, or 0.2%, lower, the Dow Futures contract traded flat, while Nasdaq 100 Futures were down 42 points, or 0.4%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.7% on Monday to hit a new one-month high, while the S&P 500 index gained 1.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite index added 2.3%.
President Trump returned to the White House on Monday after a three-night hospital stay following treatment for Covid-19, and while he’s still on medication, the risk that he might be forced to withdraw from the presidential election appears to have receded..
As a result, investors are now turning their attention back to the economic outlook with the coronavirus continuing to cause havoc. States in the U.S. Northeast are now seeing infections accelerate, after appearing to bring the virus under control in the spring and summer, with New York reporting nearly 10,000 new cases last week.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak about the economic outlook around 10:30 AM ET (1430 GMT) at a meeting of the National Association for Business Economics.
Last week saw nonfarm payrolls rising just 661,000 in September, way below expectations, suggesting that the recovery in the labor market was slowing.
With that in mind, the Fed’s favourite employment release is due out at 10:00 AM ET (1400 GMT), with the latest Jolts number expected to see 6.68 million job openings during August, largely unchanged from 6.618 million in July.
A lot will depend on whether U.S. lawmakers can agree on a new coronavirus relief fund. There is some optimism on that front after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held lengthy discussions on Monday. They are set to talk again Tuesday.
Oil prices pushed higher Tuesday as another storm formed in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, with tropical storm Delta forcing a number of oil platforms to be evacuated as it heads toward Louisiana and Florida.
The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly assessment of U.S. oil inventories at 4:30 PM ET (2030 GMT), while the U.S. government also releases its regular Short-Term Energy Outlook.
U.S. crude futures traded 1% higher at $39.61 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract rose 1% to $41.70.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,918/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1779.