US pre-open: Stocks seen down after China, ahead of busy corporate calendar

US stock futures pointed to a weaker open on Wall Street on Monday following the release of disappointing Chinese data and ahead of a busy corporate schedule this week.

At 1300 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were down 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively, while Nasdaq futures were flat.

Data out of China earlier showed that second-quarter gross domestic product grew by 6.3% year-on-year, missing expectations.

The print for the second quarter marked a 0.8% pace of growth from the first quarter and was well behind the 7.3% increase in second quarter GDP forecast by analysts.

National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Fu Linghui said the country could still achieve its full-year growth target of around 5% growth for 2023.

Rania Gule, market analyst at XS.com, said: "Turning to key economic data that will impact the markets this week, one of the highlights on the US economic agenda is the retail sales data for June, which is expected to show a monthly increase of about 0.5%. This could signal economic strength and bolster expectations of further rate hikes by the Federal Reserve after the July meeting and throughout the remainder of 2023. If the data comes in higher or in line with expectations, it might exert negative pressure on stock prices, leading to a corrective downward movement in the S&P 500 before continuing its current upward trend.

"Traders will also closely monitor the earnings season in the United States, which officially started last Friday with major banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citi announcing that their numbers would be better than expected. However, the markets did not respond positively to these statements, and financial stocks declined during the last week's trading.

"During this week, more financial institutions will report their results, including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. The earnings results of these commercial and investment banks will provide valuable insights into economic expectations and the resilience and strength of the economy. Any figures indicating economic deterioration could have a positive impact on index and stock trading.

"In the technology sector, Netflix and Tesla will lead the quarterly results of American companies. Given their high market capitalisations, fluctuations in their stock prices can significantly impact the performance of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes."