U.S. Stock Futures Hold Steady Ahead Of Data

U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady start for Wall Street on Tuesday, but some observers expect further gains when housing data are released shortly after the open. Meanwhile, Caterpillar Inc. was under pressure premarket after it trimmed its earnings view.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average  rose 6 points to 13,495, while those for Standard & Poor’s 500 index  rose 0.2 point to 1,451.60.

Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index  rose 2.75 points to 2,841.

Investors will get fresh news on the state of the U.S. economy, starting with the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index for July due at 9 a.m. Eastern time. At 10 a.m. Eastern, the Conference Board will release the consumer-confidence index for September, and at the same time, the Federal Housing Finance Agency will release the July home-price index.

Christian Tegllund Blaabjerg, chief economist at FIH Erhvervsbank, expects U.S. stocks to move higher once the Case-Shiller data come out. “I think we’re going to see a very bullish housing market. I think the bottom was reached awhile ago. We’re not on a Ferrari-like recovery path, but still more like a Chevy pickup truck, [with] stable and continuing improvement,” he said.

Confidence data may also help, he said. “Consumer confidence will show U.S. improvement. I think we’re going to see a diverging path here. Europeans are still stuck in the mud because Spain won’t accept that they need to borrow money from someone else and the continuing drag from this,” said Blaabjerg. “The banking sector is in far worse shape than they realize. They will need help, a lot of money going forward.”

U.S. stocks finished lower on Monday, driving the S&P 500 index  to its third-straight day of losses, off 3.26 points, or 0.2%, to 1,456.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average  fell 20.55 points, or 0.2%, to 13,558.92.

Worries over how Europe is handling the sovereign-debt crisis weighed on several asset classes the prior day. Investors continue to wait for news on a potential rescue package for Spain, in a busy week for that country. Read Spain: What investors need to know.

Commodities were pushing slightly higher as the dollar held mostly steady. Crude oil for November delivery  rose 32 cents to $92.26 a barrel, while gold for December delivery  added $3.30 to $1,767.90 an ounce.

The dollar index , which tracks the dollar against six major currencies, rose to 79.622 compared with 79.573 in North American trade late Monday.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index  was flat, while Asia stocks traded mostly weaker on Tuesday. The Shanghai Composite Index  fell 0.4%, languishing around midyear lows.

Caterpillar, Carnival

On the corporate front, shares of Caterpillar fell over 2% in premarket after the company said late Monday that it expects earnings of $12 to $15 a share in 2015. Previously, the company had said it expected to earn $15 to $20 a share for that year.  The company issued the outlook at a mining trade show in Las Vegas. See: Caterpillar in After Hours.

Shares of Paychex Inc.  fell 3.8% in preopen trading after the provider of payroll-and-benefits-outsourcing services posted first-quarter results late the prior day. Read more on Paychex results.

Yahoo Inc.  shares may be active. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer is expected to deliver a blueprint for bolstering the business to employees on Tuesday, reported AllThingsD, which cited an internal memo sent out by her. Read about her memo on AllThingsD.

Cruise ship group Carnival Corp.   is expected to report fiscal third-quarter results ahead of the market open. A survey of analysts taken by FactSet projected a profit of $1.43 a share on revenue of $4.52 billion.

Marketwatch