US Stock Futures Point To Higher Open Ahead Of Factory Orders, NAPM Index

U.S. stock index futures point to a higher open on Tuesday, ahead of the publication of the US Census Bureau’s factory orders data and New York’s National Association of Purchasing Management, or NAPM, survey.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.22 percent, futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index were up 0.31 percent, while those on the Nasdaq 100 Index were up 0.34 percent.

Investors are expected to focus on the factory orders data for the month of May to be released at 10 a.m. EDT. Analysts expect the data, which measures the change in the total value of new purchase orders placed with manufacturers, to increase by 2 percent in May, twice as much as compared to the 1 percent increase in the previous month, according to a Bloomberg report.

Investors also await New York’s NAPM index, which measures business conditions among manufacturers and non-manufacturing firms doing business in the New York area, scheduled to be released at 9.45 a.m. EDT.

Other economic data scheduled to be released on Tuesday include total vehicle sales data from AutoData Corp. due at 4 p.m. EDT. Analysts expect total vehicle sales, which measures the annualized number of new vehicles sold domestically in a given month, to show a reading of 15.50 million in June, compared to the 15.23 million recorded a month ago, according to a Bloomberg report.

European stocks were trading lower in early trading on Tuesday, as investors appeared to be in profit-taking mode after yesterday's rally. London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.25 percent, Germany's DAX-30 declined 0.75 percent while France's CAC-40 traded down 0.64 percent.

Asian stock markets ended mixed on Tuesday as Japanese and Australian stocks rose while Hong Kong shares ended down, worried about a slowing of the Chinese economy following weak manufacturing data released Monday.

Japan’s Nikkei ended up 1.8 percent and China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.57 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.70 percent. South Korea’s KOSPI Composite index declined 0.04 percent while India’s BSE Sensex was trading down 0.5 percent.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended the day up 2.63 percent, after its central bank held its key interest rate at record low and hinted at the possibility of future rate cuts, if the economic situation required them.