Dow futures fall 225 pts; Home Depot results disappoint ahead of PMI release

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Tuesday, following disappointing results from Home Depot (NYSE:HD) as concerns mount about the potential for the U.S. economy to tip into recession.

At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 225 points or 0.7%, S&P 500 Futures traded 27 points or 0.7% lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 110 points or 0.9%.

U.S. investors are set to return to the markets Tuesday after starting the week with a holiday to celebrate Presidents' Day, and sentiment remains generally weak.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell marginally last week, its third straight weekly decline, while the broad-based S&P 500 slid for a second consecutive week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite bucked the trend, posting small gains last week.

Fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve will sanction more interest rate hikes than initially expected to combat sticky inflation have hit sentiment, and this means Wednesday's release of the minutes from the last Fed meeting will be the week's highlight.

Ahead of this, Tuesday sees flash PMI data which should provide a guide to the strength of the U.S. manufacturing and service sectors.

The equivalent data in Europe, out earlier Tuesday, showed a sharp pickup in the dominant services sector, but the news was less impressive when looking at manufacturing.

In corporate news, it's the turn of the retail sector to post dominant earnings this week.

Home Depot (HD) stock fell over 4% premarket after the home improvement chain missed fourth quarter sales estimates and forecast annual profit below expectations, hurt by higher supply chain costs.

Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the world's largest retailer by sales, is also scheduled to report earnings before the bell Tuesday and should provide an insight into the strength of consumer spending amid soaring prices.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and Visa (NYSE:V) will also be in the spotlight following a report from Sky News that the payment giants face a major class action lawsuit on behalf of British businesses over the size of the amount companies pay banks to accept purchases made with a credit or debit card.

Additionally, Meta Platforms (META) has announced a new paid subscription service on its Facebook (NASDAQ:META) and Instagram platforms.

Oil prices struggled for direction Tuesday, with strength in the U.S. dollar weighing while Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared his country for a long war in Ukraine in a keynote speech in the week that marks the anniversary of his invasion of the neighboring country.

The release of the American Petroleum Institute and U.S. government oil inventory estimates for last week are both delayed by one day owing to the public holiday on Monday.

By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.9% higher at $77.19 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.4% to $83.75.

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,843.15/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% lower at 1.0659.