(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were slightly higher on Tuesday as the Trump administration signaled easing tariffs on the auto sector and investors awaited key earnings and economic data for more direction.
President Donald Trump’s administration will move to reduce the impact of his automotive tariffs by alleviating some duties imposed on foreign parts in domestically manufactured cars, and keeping tariffs on cars made abroad from piling on top of other ones, officials said.
Shares of automakers Ford and Tesla rose 1.1% and 0.8%, respectively, while General Motors gained 0.9% ahead of its quarterly results.
Investors are also awaiting more clarity on the state of U.S.-China trade negotiations, on a busy day for earnings from companies including Coca-Cola and United Parcel Service.
Consumer confidence and JOLTs job openings are also scheduled for the day, while U.S. first-quarter GDP and nonfarm payrolls are expected later in the week.
Four of the “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap stocks – Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.com – will report quarterly results this week.
“It shouldn’t really be especially surprising that participants took something of a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to proceedings … with conviction lacking across the board, and markets largely meandering along in a relatively directionless fashion,” said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.
At 5:25 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 96 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 7.25 points, or 0.13%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 25.25 points, or 0.13%.
The S&P 500 closed Monday with marginal gains, rising for a fifth straight session in its best winning streak since November. Indexes have clawed back some losses this month on hopes for a de-escalation in trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Still, all three major indexes remain down for the year, with the S&P 500 on track to fall about 1.5% this month.
First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 10.9% from a year ago. That is higher than an early-April estimate for a 7.8% rise, but many companies have warned of the new tariffs impacting their outlook.
NXP Semiconductors NV fell 8.1% after the company only slightly beat expectations for revenue, and announced CEO Kurt Sievers would retire by the end of the year and insider Rafael Sotomayor would succeed him.
(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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