US Stock Futures Suggest Lower Open; AOL, CVS, DirecTV, Tesla Among Companies To Announce Earnings On Tuesday

After yet another rally on Monday, albeit a minor one following unexciting data, markets could look to a heavy earnings calendar for direction.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.34 percent and those on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index were down 0.24 percent, while futures on the Nasdaq 100 Index were down 0.27 percent.

On Monday, the S&P 500, which has gained 24 percent in the year so far was just under last week’s closing high of 1771.95.

"The economy is like a freight train that is slowly gaining momentum," Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management, told the Wall Street Journal.

However, John Stoltzfus, chief market strategist at Oppenheimer Asset Management, told the Journal: "It's progress, not perfection," and added, "Earnings have given some justification for the market's recent moves."

Speaking of which, Tuesday’s earnings roster is loaded with AOL, Inc. (NYSE:AOL), CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE:CVS), Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR), DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV), Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE:D), T-Mobile US Inc (NYSE:TMUS) and Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) scheduled be among those announcing quarterly earnings.

In Europe, stocks fell back from five-year highs, MarketWatch reported, led by a fall in banking stocks. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.2 percent while London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.48 percent. Germany's DAX-30 was down 0.32 percent and France's CAC-40 was trading down 0.34 percent.

In Asia, markets were trading mostly mixed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.77 percent after the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to kept rates steady at a record low. South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.56 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.65 percent while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.35 percent. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.17 percent while India’s BSE Sensex was down 1.25 percent.