US pre-open: Futures slightly higher following Chinese turmoil-fuelled selloff
Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Tuesday following heavy losses in the previous session.
As of 1215 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.09%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.30% and 0.49% higher, respectively.
The Dow closed 497.57 points lower on Monday amid concerns about social unrest in China stemming from the nation's ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.
Futures traded slightly prior to the open after growing frustration in mainland China weighed on global markets around the world and briefly pushed West Texas Intermediate crude futures to their lowest level since December 2021. Both Brent and WTI futures have since changed direction and traded higher before the start of trading.
AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "There are all sorts of speculations in the market; some of them indicate that China will relax those measures much sooner than the current anticipations. There are those gossips which point that Beijing is in no mood to relax any measures and the zero-covid policy is going to eat into the country’s growth.
"The fact is that a lack of clarity from the government is causing all these rumours. China must step up and give more clarity about its covid related policies as it is the second largest economy in the world, and an economic slowdown in China is going to hurt the rest of the world as well.
On the macro front, the Conference Board's November consumer confidence report will be the session's primary focus, with market participants set to look very closely at the outcome as it will provide some hints as to consumer health in the US. Analysts expect to see the headline number slow down from its previous reading of 102.5 to 100 - likely spooking traders.
Elsewhere, September's house price index will be published at 1400 GMT, while November's Dallas Fed services index will be on deck at 1530 GMT.
In terms of earnings, financial software firm Intuit will release its first quarter figures after the close of trading.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com