US pre-open: Futures in the green ahead of consumer confidence, JOLTs

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Tuesday ahead of some key economic data.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.40%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.41% and 0.38% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed 94.65 points higher on Monday as market participants braced for a week full of decisive economic reports.

In focus ahead of the bell on Tuesday was the latest developments in the Ukraine-Russia war, with peace talks getting underway in Turkey. However, both sides have stated that they were not even close to striking a deal, with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba vowing that "nothing is agreed upon unless everything is agreed upon".

Also drawing an amount of investor attention were the sharp declines in energy prices recorded yesterday, with Brent crude and West Texas intermediate falling 9.32% and 6.97% a barrel, respectively. While futures in both were a bit over 1% higher before the open, Shanghai's recent lockdown combined with a rising number of Covid cases in China has boosted concerns around Chinese oil demand.

Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: "Many oil traders predict that the price of a barrel could reach $200 by the end of the year. Goldman Sachs warns that the barrel of crude at $200 would send the economy into recession as it would 'produce an income shock similar in magnitude to those that precipitated the 1974 and 1979 recessions'."

However, Ozkardeskaya noted that "we are not there yet" and that a barrel of US crude was still capped below the $130 level.

In terms of the session's all-important macro points, January's house price index will be published at 1300 BST, while the Conference Board's March consumer confidence index and February's JOLTs report will follow at 1400 BST and this month's Dallas Fed services index will be released at 1430 BST.

In the corporate space, Lululemon Athletica and Micron Technology will both report earnings after the close.