US pre-open: Futures higher ahead of Warsh testimony, Q1 earnings

(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Tuesday as investors looked set to largely shrug off heightened tensions in the Middle East ahead of another batch of quarterly earnings and Senate testimony from Donald Trump's pick for the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. As of 1300 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.64%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.45% and 0.53% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed just 4.87 points lower on Monday, barely denting solid gains made at the end of the previous week, despite tensions between the US and Iran escalating over the weekend.

Outside of first quarter earnings, Tuesday's primary focus will likely be testimony from Donald Trump's nominee for Fed chairman, Kevin Warsh, which will take place at 1500 BST, with his prepared remarks seeing the former Fed governor tell the Senate Banking Committee that the US central bank must remain largely independent of political influence while staying focused on its core objectives.

"The Fed must stay in its lane," he said, adding that its independence was most at risk when it strayed into fiscal or social policy areas "where it has neither authority nor expertise".

In the corporate space, GE Aerospace, UnitedHealth, 3M, Halliburton and Northrop Grumman will post their latest quarterly earnings before the open, while United Airlines and Chubb were both slated to report earnings after the close.

On the macro front, March retail sales will be out at 1330 BST, while February business inventories and March pending home sales will be released at 1500 BST.







Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com