US pre-open: Stocks seen muted after long weekend

US futures pointed to a muted open on Wall Street as traders return to their desks following the long weekend.

At 1150 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were down 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures were flat. Stock markets were closed on Monday for Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, oil prices retreated as investors continued to digest the outcome of last week's Opec meeting in Vienna. West Texas Intermediate was down 0.9% to $49.53 a barrel and Brent crude was off 1% to $51.78.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "US equity markets are expected to open slightly lower after the long bank holiday weekend, with traders looking to the income, spending and inflation data from the US to spark things back to life.

"With markets still heavily pricing in a rate hike at the next meeting in a couple of weeks, there is the potential for disappointment yet again today. The upward revision to first quarter growth may have settled people’s nerves a little but a weak inflation report today could raise questions ahead of the June meeting. We’ve already had some policy makers raising concerns about the lack of inflation and a weak number today may be just enough to convince them to hold off on raising rates for a little longer."

Personal income and the core personal consumption expenditure index are due at 1330 BST, while S&P/Case-Shiller house prices are at 1530 BST.

Erlam said both income and spending are expected to have grown by 0.4% in April which is consistent with the retail sales data and comes following a very disappointing first quarter. "Strong figures today would be consistent with the current Fed belief that the slowdown in the first quarter was transitory, as it proved to be over the last few years," he added.

Elsewhere, Fed Governor Lael Brainard is due to give a speech later in the day at the New York Association for Business Economics.

In corporate news, US-listed shares of Ryanair are likely to be in focus after the budget airline reported a record full-year profit of €1.32bn but said fares are expected to keep falling, albeit less sharply than last year.