Stock futures were lower early Tuesday as geopolitical tensions weighed on sentiment, while investors awaited key earnings from retailers and chipmaker Nvidia this week.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials plummeted 228 points, or 0.5%, to 43,312.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 15.75 points, or 0.3%, to 5,904.25
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite Index fell 23.75 points, or 0.4%, to 20,609.75.
Those declines come after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. on Tuesday that the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons had lowered. Under the new doctrine, Russia would consider using such weaponry if it — or allies — were met with “with the use of conventional weapons that created a critical threat to their sovereignty and (or) their territorial integrity.”
The new stance comes after President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia. Bloomberg News also reported.
Nvidia is also set to post its latest quarterly figures Wednesday. Eyes will be on how much demand the company signals for its Blackwell AI chips.
About 93% of S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly results so far, with three-quarters exceeding expectations and more than 60% beating revenue estimates
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% Tues, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng moved forward 0.4%.
Oil prices lost 45 cents to $68.31 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices gained $19.40 to $2,634 U.S. an ounce.
