US pre-open: Stocks in the green after Dow Jones and S&P 500 close at new highs

Wall Street futures were pointing to a positive open ahead of the bell on Tuesday after the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both closed at new record highs yesterday.

As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.03%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.15% and 0.55% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 174.82 points higher on Monday after the yield on the US 10-year Treasury note slid off recent highs and the Internal Revenue Service began processing $1,400 direct payments to Americans.

The Federal Reserve will kick off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with market participants patiently awaiting comments on inflation and interest rates from chairman Jerome Powell tomorrow.

Also in focus, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, which sparked a rotation out of growth stocks as a result of its recent highs, was sitting at roughly 1.6% before the open, down from last week's peaks but still elevated.

CMC Markets' Michael Hewson said: "For the most part Federal Reserve officials have come across as being quite relaxed about the recent move higher in yields at the long end of the US bond market.

"Powell can insist as much as he likes that rates won’t move before 2024, but if the market thinks otherwise there won’t be that much he can do to change that shift in perception, which means in the longer term the risk won’t be in the long end, it will be in the short end. We've already seen it in the 5-year yield with a sharp move higher in recent weeks. For now, the 2-year yield has remained well anchored, but a further run of decent data could well see this start to shift, especially if we move through the 0.2% level, which has been the top for most of the last 10 months. On this basis, surely a selloff in the US 2 year treasury is only a matter of time."

On the macro front, February retail sales figures will be released shortly, while February industrial production data and monthly business inventories numbers for January will follow at 1315 GMT and 1400 GMT, respectively.

March's NAHB housing market index will also be published at 1400 GMT.

On the earnings front, Lennar and CrowdStrike will both report earnings throughout the course of the day.