US pre-open: Stocks seen muted as attention turns to Trump speech

US futures pointed to a muted open on Wall Street on Tuesday as investors looked ahead to a key speech by President Donald Trump, who teased investors the day before with the promise of a "big" announcement on infrastructure.

At 1110 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all flat.

On Monday, US equities shook off early losses to end higher, with the Dow notching up a record close for the 12th session in a row.

“We’re going to make it easier for states to address their infrastructure, and I’m going to have a big statement tomorrow night on infrastructure,” Trump told governors visiting the White House. “We’re going to start spending on infrastructure big.”

However, Trump also said that any details on tax reform would not be revealed until after the administration's proposal on healthcare.

Trump is due to give an address to a joint session of Congress later.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: "Ahead of the big speech tonight we have US consumer confidence and Chicago PMI numbers, but it looks like US investors will be spending the day in a similar manner to their European counterparts.

"Defence firms should be ones to watch as the president pledges to boost military outlays, although as ever the devil will be in the detail. Ahead of the open, we expect the Dow to start at 20,825, down 12 points from yet another record close last night."

On Monday, the odds of the Fed hiking interest rates next month rose to more than 50% from 44% after Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan explained that when he had said in the past that a rate rise could come sooner rather than later, this meant "in the near future".

More Fed officials are due to speak later on Tuesday. St Louis Fed President James Bullard will give a speech on the US economy at George Washington University, while Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will address the economic outlook at Temple University and San Francisco Fed President John Williams is due to speak at the chamber of commerce in California.

In corporate news, rental car company Hertz Global was likely to be in focus after it reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss late on Monday.

Elsewhere, Target and SeaWorld Entertainment were among the companies slated to report earnings before the opening bell.

On the data front, the second estimate of gross domestic product data for the fourth quarter is at 1330 GMT, along with wholesale inventories, the goods trade balance and personal consumption expenditure prices. The Chicago purchasing managers' index is at 1445 GMT.