U.S. stock futures point to losses after Nasdaq selloff
U.S. stocks were poised to open in the red territory on Tuesday after traders watched the Nasdaq dip for the fourth time out of the past five trading sessions.
By 5:35 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were down 93 points, or 0.3% to 31,373. Those for the S&P 500 dropped 30.62 points, or 0.79% to 3,842.88 while the Nasdaq 100 futures plunged 266.5 points, or 2.02% to 12,957.75.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended the previous session at a three-week low as tech giants Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) tumbled.
Powell to testify before Congress
Meanwhile, traders will be following closely as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell begins his first of two days of hearings before Congress to deliver his semiannual report on the economy and monetary policy.
The hearing before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 a.m. ET and House of Representatives Financial Services Committee tomorrow will be his first since President Joe Biden and the Democratic party clinched control of the White House and Congress.
Powell is again expected to tell lawmakers that the unconventional policy the central bank has used over the past year will stay in place for the foreseeable future. He is also likely to talk about inflation, bond purchases, interest rates, and the size of Biden’s coronavirus stimulus package.
Bitcoin drops after Yellen, Musk remarks
Moving forward, the price of Bitcoin is dropping after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday described the digital asset as an “extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions.”
“To the extent it is used I fear it’s often for illicit finance. It’s an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions, and the amount of energy that’s consumed in processing those transactions is staggering,” Yellen told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at a New York Times DealBook conference.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, bitcoin traded around $45,821 after dipping 15% in the last 24 hours according to data compiled by Coin Metrics.
The slump was also in part to remarks from Tesla CEO Elon Musk who tweeted over the weekend the price of Bitcoin and the digital coin Ethereum “do seem high.”
Home Depot, Macy’s earnings
On the earnings front, traders are awaiting quarterly reports from Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Macy’s (NYSE: M) ahead of the market open.
Analysts expect Home Depot to post earnings of $2.62 per share on revenue of $30.73 billion. Macy’s is seen reporting earnings of 12 cents per share and revenue of $6.50 billion.
Other earnings to watch today include Square (NYSE: SQ), McAfee (NASDAQ: MCFE), Dillard’s (NYSE: DDS), and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL).
