U.S. stocks fell early on Tuesday after hitting record highs, as investors expected a second wave of profits from big Wall Street banks and oil prices fell amid eased concerns about Israeli retaliation.
Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) futures were little changed after closing above 43,000 for the first time. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) held near Monday’s new all-time high, while contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) fell 0.1%.
The stock rally is on pause as we count down to quarterly results from Goldman Sachs (GS), Citi (C) and Bank of America (BAC) before the bell rings on Tuesday. Investors are watching for the same signs of resilience seen in big banks’ reports on Friday, which raised optimism about the economy and helped lift the Dow Jones and S&P 500 to new highs.
As the avalanche of earnings begins to widen, market hopes point to more positive surprises in what some on Wall Street suspect could be a difficult season. Tuesday’s agenda brings reports from Charles Schwab (SCHW), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), among others.
Meanwhile, oil prices fell more than 5% after a report that Israel is set to refrain from bombing Iran’s nuclear and crude oil facilities in its response to an attack two weeks ago. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL=F) sank to just below $70 a barrel, while Brent crude futures (BZ=F) fell below $74 following the Washington Post report .
As for chipmaker stocks, Nvidia shares fell 1.4% in premarket trading, retreating from their recently reached high. The United States is considering restricting sales of AI chips to specific countries by companies such as Nvidia and AMD (AMD), Bloomberg reported. Rising, shares of electric vehicle chipmaker Wolfspeed (WOLF) rose more than 20% on news that it will receive $750 million in government subsidies to build a new facility.