FILE PHOTO: A man wears a protective mask as he walks on Wall Street during the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, New York, U.S., March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures eased on Tuesday, handing back gains from the S&P 500’s best day in six weeks in the previous session, as disappointing results from Home Depot (HD.N) weighed on sentiment.
Shares in the home improvement chain dropped 2.2% in premarket trade, the most among the 30 Dow Industrials components .DJI as it missed profit estimates in the first quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smaller rival Lowe’s Companies Inc (LOW.N) also slipped 1.5% in response.
Focus now turns to the world’s largest grocer Walmart Inc (WMT.N) which was trading 1.5% higher ahead of its results.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will also be grilled later in the day by the Senate Banking Committee on action still needed to keep the world’s largest economy afloat and missteps in rolling out some $3 trillion in aid so far.
The S&P 500 and Dow ended more than 3% higher on Monday, boosted by promising early stage data for a potential COVID-19 vaccine and Powell’s pledge to support the economy as needed until the current crisis has passed.
At 06:20 a.m. EDT, Dow e-minis were down 132 points, or 0.54%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 15 points, or 0.51% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 26 points, or 0.28%
SPDR S&P 500 ETFs (SPY.P) were down 0.48%.
Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham