US pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher but investors cautious after Trump attacks Fed
US futures pointed to a slightly firmer open on Wall Street on Tuesday, although investors were likely to remain cautious after President Trump talked down the dollar again.
At 1230 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all up 0.2%.
The US dollar weakened overnight after Trump criticised the Federal Reserve again for lifting interest rates. In an interview with Reuters, Trump said the Fed should do "what’s good for the country".
Trump also accused Europe and China of manipulating their currencies again. The US President told Reuters that China was doing so to make up for having to pay US tariffs. He also said he does not expect much from the US-China trade talks later this week and that he has no time frame for ending the dispute.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: "Two problems beset investors this morning, and both (unsurprisingly) emanate from the White House. First, Trump’s interview with Reuters regarding his low expectations for the China talks, while a sensible position to take ahead of the talks, seems to suggest the president is happy to keep this pot boiling over for the foreseeable future, applying pressure to a Chinese government that is trying to battle tariff wars and manage a fundamental realignment of the national economy. The second issue is his public criticism of the Fed - while we should be used to it by now, it has come at just the right point to unnerve the late-comers to the dollar rally.
"Fed minutes, PMIs and Jackson Hole at the weekend mean that dollar bulls, while likely to be vindicated in the longer-term, are in for a tough few days".
In corporate news, Kohl's was weaker in pre-market trade even as the department store chain's second-quarter earnings saw profit and sales beat expectations, while food manufacturer JM Smucker was in the red after its quarterly sales missed expectations.
Coty tumbled in pre-market trade after the beauty products maker's quarterly sales fell short of estimates.
Elsewhere, medical device company Medtronic rallied ahead of the open after it reported a 6% jump in quarterly profit, while housebuilder Toll Brothers surged after it lifted its revenue forecast following better-than-expected quarterly numbers.