US pre-open: Futures mixed as traders look ahead to CPI reading

Wall Street futures were mostly in the green ahead of the bell on Tuesday as traders looked ahead to tomorrow's consumer price index reading.

As of 1235 BST, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were up 0.07% and 0.06%, respectively, while Nasdaq-100 futures had the index opening 0.09% lower.

The Dow closed 101.23 points higher on Monday after market participants returned from the Easter Break in a more positive mood.

Investors seemed to be holding out for March's consumer and producer price indexes, due out on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, with both inflation metrics likely to provide markets with further insight into what the Federal Reserve may look to do with its rate-hiking campaign going forward.

On the macro front for today, the National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism index edged to a three-month low of 90.1 in March, down from 90.9 in February to mark the 15th straight month the index has sat below its 49-year average of 98.

Also drawing an amount of investor attention, the US will soon enter into yet another earnings season, with a number of major American banks set to publish their latest quarterly results, the first since traders zeroed-in on the banking sector last month following multiple crises.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Tuesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com