Futures fell ahead of economic data release; Trump’s plans are in focus

(Reuters) – U.S. stock futures settled slightly higher on Tuesday as caution increased ahead of a batch of economic data and as investors awaited any insights into the policies of the incoming Trump administration.

At 5:42 a.m. EST, Dow E-minis were up 32 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 6.5 points, or 0.11%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up by 20.25 points, or 0.09%.

On investors’ radar will be the release of the November jobs and turnover report and the Institute for Supply Management data on services activity for December, both scheduled for release at 10 a.m. ET.

The key nonfarm payrolls number is also due later in the week and any signs of continued resilience in the economy are likely to dampen expectations about the pace of the Fed’s monetary easing cycle this year.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has been rising since early December and is trading at 4.6% — near its highest level since May 2024.

Traders see the central bank taking a dovish stance for the first time this year in June, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, after the Fed forecast 50 basis points of interest rate cuts in 2025. Minutes from the central bank’s December meeting are scheduled to be released on Wednesday.

Comments from Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin are expected on Tuesday. He and his colleagues have widely warned of inflation risks and the need to keep borrowing costs restrained for longer as Trump takes charge of the Oval Office later this month.

In the previous session, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed below their highest levels in a week after President-elect Donald Trump denied a report that his team was exploring less aggressive tariff policies, raising uncertainty among market participants about his plans.

Analysts widely say that Trump campaign pledges such as tax cuts, tariffs and looser regulations if implemented could stimulate the economy, although they could increase the upside risks to inflation and slow the pace of the Fed’s easing cycle. Moreover, his tariff plans if implemented could also spark a trade war between the country’s major partners.

Among the pre-market movers, Nvidia rose 1.6% a day after the second-largest US listed company unveiled new products and partnerships at a major annual technology conference in Las Vegas.

Micron Technology rose 5.4% after Nvidia President Jensen Huang said the chipmaker is providing memory for AI-bellwether’s GeForce RTX 50 Blackwell gaming chipset family.

The shares of self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation jumped by 44.4% after announcing a long-term partnership with Nvidia and German Continental to deploy self-driving trucks on a large scale.

(Reporting by Johan M. Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)