US pre-open: Stocks to dip after Russia events

US stock futures pointed to a marginally lower open on Wall Street on Monday as investors mulled a failed coup against Putin over the weekend.

At 1205 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.1% and 0.2% weaker, respectively.

Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets, said: "As we look towards the start of trade for the final week of the first half of the year, there’s little around to inspire markets. Equities across Asia had a rough session, European trade has kicked off very much on the back foot and futures suggest we’ll see some downside pressures once Wall Street opens, too. There’s not much of interest on the economic or corporate calendars today either, but any further direction over what happens next in Russia will be closely followed in the wake of the weekend’s abortive coup attempt.

"The old adage of markets not liking uncertainty arguably summarises the situation well, so given the geopolitical backdrop, the potential for rebalancing as we approach the half way point for the year and also some potential for de-risking ahead of next week’s market holiday in the US, traders can arguably be excused if the mood this week is somewhat muted."

Ahead of the open, Mahony called the Dow down 36 points at 33,691 and the S&P down seven at 4,341.

On the corporate front, Tesla shares were likely to fall after Goldman Sachs downgraded its stance on the electric car maker.

GS said: "While the primary reason for the change in our view is that we think the market is now giving the stock more credit for its longer-term opportunities, we are also cognizant of the difficult pricing environment for new vehicles that we think will continue to weigh on Tesla’s automotive non-GAAP gross margin this year."

Elsewhere, IBM announced it has agreed to buy software provider Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for $4.6bn.

It said the acquisition "will accelerate the advancement of IBM's IT automation capabilities and enable enterprise leaders to deliver enhanced business value across technology investments".