Dow futures steady; bank earnings, retail sales in focus

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Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures traded largely unchanged Tuesday, pausing for breath after more gains during the prior session ahead of a deluge of fresh corporate earnings.

By 06:30 ET (10:30 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 2 points or 0.1%, while S&P 500 Futures traded 3 points or 0.1%, lower and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 25 points or 0.1%.

The benchmark indices on Wall Street closed higher Monday, continuing the previous week’s positive tone as expectations rise that the Federal Reserve can engineer a soft landing for the U.S. economy, controlling inflation without causing the economy to fall into recession.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76 points or 0.2%, to notch its highest close of the year. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.9%.

Goldman cuts odds of U.S. recession

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has revised down the odds of a U.S. recession happening in the next 12 months, cutting the probability down to 20% from 25%, according to a report released Monday.

“The main reason for our cut is that the recent data have reinforced our confidence that bringing inflation down to an acceptable level will not require a recession,” Goldman said.

Retail sales, industrial production data due

There is more economic data to study Tuesday after a stronger-than-anticipated reading from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's manufacturing index on Monday hinted at resilient business activity.

The U.S. retail sales reading for June is expected to have improved from the prior month, while industrial production growth is also expected to accelerate in June.

Banks remain in the spotlight

However, most attention Tuesday will be on corporate earnings, with results from banking giants Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) likely to be studied for clues about business and consumer spending trends.

Peers JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) were helped by higher rates, when they published their results on Friday, while {{0|Citigroup} }'s (NYSE:C) profit tumbled by over a third following a dearth of dealmaking.

Toymaker Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS), transportation company JB Hunt (NASDAQ:JBHT), and defense giant Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) are also on deck, with rising geopolitical tensions set to boost results at the last in the list.

Crude market awaits U.S. inventories

Crude prices edged higher Tuesday, with the focus turning from China's weakness towards a possible tightening of U.S. crude supplies.

Investors were now awaiting more signals from weekly U.S. inventory data, due from the American Petroleum Institute, later in the session, and then the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. The data is expected to show a decline in stockpiles after a substantially bigger-than-expected build in the prior week.

However, Monday’s disappointing Chinese growth numbers mean sentiment remains weak, with traders looking for more stimulus measures from Beijing, as the government moves to shore up economic growth.

By 06:30 ET, the U.S. crude futures traded 0.4% higher at $74.39 a barrel, while the Brent contract climbed 0.4% to $78.80.

Additionally, gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,967.35/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% higher at 1.1252.

(Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)