Stock futures trade cautiously on big earnings day, ahead of Fed meeting

The Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting on Tuesday

U.S. equity futures are trading cautiously as companies reported quarterly results.

The major futures indexes are suggesting a decline of 0.4 percent.

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The price of gold jumped to a fresh intraday high of $1,974.70 an ounce on Tuesday before retreating. Gold is pulling back, down $11.00 to $1920.00

Gold usually tends to rise when worries about the economy are high.

Much attention will be focused on a two-day meeting for the Federal Reserve that begins Tuesday, while hopes for more help for the American economy are rising as Congress debates another stimulus package.

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Investors are waiting to hear what the U.S. central bank says this week about the economy’s prospects and what it plans to do on interest rates.

The Tuesday earnings calendar includes five Dow members. 3M reported a 12 percent drop in revenue as demand for its products was impacted by the coronavirus.

Pfizer said second-quarter earnings fell 32 percent due to the pandemic as well as competition.

McDonald's reported sales at U.S. stores fell 8 percent. EPS fell short of estimates, but revenue topped expectations.

Raytheon reported per share profit and revenue that beat estimates..

Visa will present results in the afternoon.

Investors will also get the latest on home prices with S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller report for May.

In Europe, London's FTSE slipped 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX declined 0.4 percent and France's CAC is off 0.7 percent.

In Asian markets, Tokyo's Nikkei index slipped 0.3 percent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.7 percent and China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.7 percent.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
I:DJI DOW JONES AVERAGES 37798.97 +63.86 +0.17%
SP500 S&P 500 5051.41 -10.41 -0.21%
I:COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 15865.251278 -19.77 -0.12%

In the Monday session, the S&P 500 climbed 0.7 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent and buying of technology shares helped push the Nasdaq composite 1.7 percent higher.

Benchmark U.S. crude is down 7 cents at $41.52 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 31 cents to settle at $41.60 per barrel on Monday.

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Brent crude, the international standard, added 16 cents to $43.57 per barrel.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.