© Reuters
By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening higher Tuesday, stabilizing after the previous session’s sharp falls with investors remaining on edge as the war in Ukraine continues, pushing oil prices higher and potentially stunting global growth.
At 7 AM ET (1200 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 110 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 Futures traded 18 points, or 0.4%, higher and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 35 points, or 0.3%.
The main Wall Street indices slumped on Monday, with the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 800 points or 2.4%, the broad-based S&P 500 dropping almost 3%, its biggest one-day decline in more than a year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 3.6%.
The conflict in Ukraine, and the associated Western sanctions on Russia, have prompted concerns about supply shocks, sending commodity prices soaring to multi-year records.
The U.S. national average for gasoline surged to $4.104 per gallon on Monday, just ahead of the previous all-time of $4.103 per gallon in 2008, before the onset of the Great Recession.
These inflationary pressures are raising concerns that the Federal Reserve will have to hike interest rates more aggressively than the market has factored in, potentially stunting the recovery in the world’s largest economy and global growth driver.
The U.S. central bank meets next week, and Chairman Jerome Powell last week backed a quarter-point rate increase in his Semiannual Testimony to Congress, adding he would move more aggressively later if inflation didn’t abate.
Oil prices remain firm Tuesday, not far removed from the previous session’s 14-year highs. The latest weekly inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, is due later and follows a drop of just over 6 million barrels last week.
By 7 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 2.4% higher at $122.20 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 2.9% to $126.77. Both benchmarks hit their highest levels since July 2008 on Monday, with Brent hitting $139.13 a barrel and WTI $130.50.
In corporate news, Shell (LON:RDSa) will be in the spotlight after the oil major apologized for buying a consignment of Russian oil last week, and announced its intent to withdraw from the country.
Elsewhere, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) holds its first product event of the year later Tuesday, named "Peek Performance", which is expected to detail various product updates, including Macbook and iMac upgrades, and potentially an updated iPhone SE with 5G.
AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) recorded its third-highest attended weekend since movie theaters reopened in the summer of 2020, while Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) reports quarterly earnings before the opening bell.
Additionally, gold futures rose 1% to $2,016.60/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% higher at 1.0884.
