Wall St futures fall on company earnings, tariff uncertainty
By Nikhil Sharma and Pranav Kashyap
(Reuters) -S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures slipped into the red on Tuesday as investors geared up for a whirlwind day of company results and awaited potential breakthroughs in negotiations between the United States and its trading partners.
At 07:00 a.m. ET, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis were down 6 points, or 0.09%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 43.25 points, or 0.19%, and Dow E-minis were down 86 points, or 0.19%.
Wall Street’s heavyweights are starting to feel the sting of tariffs. General Motors saw its second-quarter core profit tumble 32% to $3 billion, blaming steep tariff costs for shaving $1.1 billion from its bottom line.
The company’s shares lost 3.5% in premarket trading, while peer Ford also dropped 1%.
RTX cut its 2025 profit forecast as the aerospace and defense giant took a hit from Trump’s tariff war. Its shares dropped 1%.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola rose 1% after beating second-quarter revenue estimates.
Despite trade policy uncertainty out of Washington, the U.S. economy’s resilience has propelled major indexes to fresh all-time highs.
With little over a week to go before August 1, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emphasized on Monday that the administration was prioritizing the quality of trade deals over speed.
Meanwhile, trade talks are stuck as the European Union weighs new countermeasures against the United States and hopes for an interim deal with India were fading, Indian government officials said.
Still, a slew of positive earnings surprises has kept markets near record territory. Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to report a healthy 6.7% jump in second-quarter profits, with Big Tech leading the charge, data compiled by LSEG shows.
“While U.S. stocks may be due for a breather, we believe the bull market remains intact… we recommend using volatility as an opportunity to phase into markets,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, UBS Global Wealth Management said.
Tuesday’s cautious trading comes after a rollercoaster session that ended with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both notching record closes. Much of the action was fueled by investors snapping up megacaps such as Alphabet ahead of earnings.
Google-parent Alphabet and EV-maker Tesla will inaugurate quarterly results for the “Magnificent Seven” stocks on Wednesday, setting the tone for Wall Street.
Shares of Tesla were down 0.3% in premarket trading, having fallen about 19% so far in 2025 amid CEO Elon Musk’s political involvement and the challenges its core business faces.
Investors will also be tuning in at 8:30 a.m. ET for a speech from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, searching for hints on the central bank’s next move.
The Fed’s reluctance to cut rates has drawn fire from the Trump administration, fueling speculation about Powell’s future. Bessent signaled on Monday that he wants to review the Fed’s performance as an institution.
Following last week’s mixed economic signals, traders have all but ruled out a rate cut next week and now see a 56.3% chance of an easing in September, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Among other movers, U.S. coal miners Peabody Energy and Warrior Met Coal were up 3.7% each, as China’s coking coal prices surged amid market speculation about government inspections in major production hubs.
(Reporting by Nikhil Sharma and Pranav kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
