Futures slip with focus on stimulus talks, Pfizer, McDonald’s earnings

By Devik Jain

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures retreated on Tuesday as lawmakers geared up to debate a coronavirus relief deal to limit the economic damage from the pandemic, with investors also keeping an eye on quarterly earnings reports from Pfizer and McDonald’s.

Senate Republicans announced on Monday a $1 trillion aid package hammered out with the White House – four days before millions of Americans lose unemployment benefits – but the proposal sparked immediate opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Hopes of more government stimulus helped Wall Street’s main indexes close higher on Monday, with traders also tracking corporate America’s forecasts for a business recovery and signs of progress in developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

German biotech BioNTech and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc said late on Monday they would begin a pivotal global study to evaluate their lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Pfizer rose 2.1% in premarket trading ahead of it second-quarter earnings report due later in the day.

Nearly 189 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report quarterly results this week, including Wall Street’s trillion dollar club – Apple Inc , Amazon.com Inc , Alphabet Inc – and Facebook Inc .

All eyes will also be on the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, where analysts expect the central bank to lay down the groundwork for more action later this year.

At 6:26 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were down 101 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 11 points, or 0.34% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 41.75 points, or 0.39%.

On the economic front, the Conference Board’s survey at 10 a.m. ET is expected to show a reading on the U.S. consumer confidence index fell to 94.5 in July from 98.1 in June.

(Reporting by Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)