Dow futures were subdued on Tuesday, lagging Wall Street peers after the blue-chip index logged a terrific 11-day rally, while investors awaited quarterly earnings from megacap technology companies.
The earnings from Google-owner Alphabet and Microsoft, due after the bell, will be a test for their hefty valuations. The megacaps rose 0.7% each in premarket trading.
The U.S. tech giants are expected to signal an end to a nearly year-long slowdown in their cloud businesses as signs of economic resilience encourage clients to boost technology spending, while a pickup in digital ads will also aid their profits.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has rallied 34.3% this year, helped by outsized gains in rate-sensitive megacap growth companies on optimism over artificial intelligence and hopes of an end to the Fed's tightening cycle.
Visa, Verizon Communications, Texas Instruments, Biogen, General Electric and General Motors are also set to report their results later in the day.
Also in focus is a widely expected announcement of a 25 basis point rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
At 05:12 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 13 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6 points, or 0.13%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 56.25 points, or 0.36%.
All three indexes kicked off the busy earnings and data week higher in the previous session, with a jump in oil major Chevron helping Dow log its longest winning streak in over six years.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Bilibili added 1.5% and 3.5%, respectively, as investors cheered pledges of support in the readout from an earlier-than-expected Politburo meeting in China.
On tap at 10:00 a.m. ET is the consumer confidence data that is expected to rise to 111.8 in July from 109.7 in June.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
