U.S. stocks look set to open mixed on Tuesday as investors await a slew of quarterly earnings reports. A number of retailers including Home Depot (NYSE: HD) are reporting earnings results.
Kohl’s Corp (NYSE: KSS), AutoZone, Inc (NYSE: AZO), TJX Companies Inc (NYSE: TJX), and J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) will report before markets open. Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) and Nordstrom, Inc (NYSE: JWN) will announce their financial reports after the closing bell.
Futures on the blue-chip Dow were seen gaining 104.5 points, or 0.41% to 25,800.5 as of 7:33 a.m. ET. Futures on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were down 126.98, or 1.69% to 7,376.7 while those on the broader S&P 500 rose 13.62, or 0.48% to 2,857.62.
U.S. eases some restrictions on Huawei
The Trump administration has announced temporary ease of restrictions to U.S. firms using telecommunication components of Huawei, which is viewed as a threat to national security by the White House.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce allowed the Chinese tech giant to continue buying American-made hardware until August 19 in order to provide software updates to its smartphones and maintain existing telecoms networks.
Huawei, however, is still barred from buying U.S.-made software and components to make new devices without license approvals that are highly likely to be rejected.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement that the new authorization is also meant to offer telecom providers that rely on components of the Chinese company time to find alternatives.
Tesla stocks falls further after Morgan Stanley downgrade
Shares of Tesla slumped in pre-market trade on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley analysts slashed their bear target on the stock to just $10 from $97. The analysts cited concerns about Chinese demand for the automaker’s products and increased debt load.
“Our revised bear case assumes Tesla misses our current Chinese volume forecast by roughly half to account for the highly volatile trade situation in the region, particularly around areas of technology, which we believe run a high and increasing risk of government/regulatory attention,” the analysts said in a note.
As of 7:47 a.m. ET, Tesla stock traded 3.55% to 198.06 following the downgrade.
