US pre-open: Stocks lower as traders await FOMC minutes

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Tuesday as investors look ahead to minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting.

As of 1255 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.14%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.13% and 0.16% weaker, respectively.

The Dow closed 203.76 points higher on Monday, extending its solid performance so far in November for another session.

Tuesday's primary focus will be on minutes from the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee's latest meeting, scheduled for release at 1900 GMT.

Traders will look for further signs that the central bank may be nearing the end of its aggressive interest rate hiking campaign after some key inflation data came in cooler-than-expected just last week.

Scope Markets' Joshua Mahony said: "After a quiet start to the week, the big macro event of the day will be publication of the FOMC meeting minutes. In the event these contain further hints of monetary policy being relaxed, that would have the potential to give stocks another broad-based leg up, extending recent gains."

Elsewhere on the macro front, the Chicago Federal Reserve's national activity index was slated for release at 1330 GMT, while existing home sales data will follow at 1500 GMT.

In the corporate space, retailers Best Buy and Lowe's, as well as chipmaker Nvidia and tech giant HP, will report earnings on Tuesday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com