US pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher ahead of housing starts, consumer sentiment

US futures pointed to a marginally higher open on Wall Street ahead of housing starts and consumer sentiment data.

At 1130 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures and S&P 500 futures were up 0.1%, while Nasdaq futures were 0.2% higher.

Meanwhile, oil prices ticked higher ahead of Baker Hughes oil rig count data at 1800 BST, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.4% to $44.63 a barrel and Brent crude 0.7% firmer at $47.25.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: “Looking to this afternoon and there is only a trickle of mid-tier US data to deal with; the building permits and housing starts numbers are forecast to rise to 1.25 million and 1.23 million respectively, while the preliminary UoM consumer sentiment reading is expected to nudge 0.1 higher to 97.2.

“Yet despite a rather dull economic calendar the US open could be notable, since the Dow Jones may just start the session above 21400 for the first time in its history.”

Over in Europe, investors were breathing a sigh of relief after eurozone ministers struck a deal to unlock the latest tranche of Greece's bailout cash. The bailout fund will disburse €8.5bn and help to avert a fresh debt crisis in July when the next loan repayment is due.

Investors will be eyeing a Q&A session at the Park Cities Rotary Club in Dallas at 1745 BST, as Federal Reserve President Rob Kaplan will be attending.

On the corporate front, Google’s Alphabet Inc could be in focus following a report it could be fined more than €1bn by the European Commission over allegations it abused its position in the search engine market.

On the macroeconomic calendar, housing starts are at 1330 BST, while the Michigan consumer sentiment index is at 1500 BST.