Financial thoughts

U.S. stocks were set for a lower open Tuesday, ahead of another batch of corporate earnings.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were all down ahead of the opening bell.

Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

Stocks ended Monday’s session with gains, although economic worries tempered positive earnings results.

"Earnings are a mixed picture right now, and people are still trying to determine whether we are seeing signs of the economy recovering," said Derek Hoffman, founder of The Wall Street Cheat Sheet. "There’s a lot of uncertainty, so investors are sitting on the sidelines and buying into companies based on these earnings, and that’s really what is moving the market from day to day."

Earnings: Companies due to report their results Tuesday include Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and tech heavyweights Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).

After U.S. markets closed Monday, IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) posted a jump in second-quarter earnings, but the tech bellwether’s sales fell short of estimates.

Economy: A reading on housing starts and building permits from the Department of Commerce comes out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect permits to have edged down to an annual rate of 572,000 in June from 574,000 in the previous month, while housing starts are forecast to have dropped to a 575,000 rate from 593,000.

A state unemployment report from the Department of Labor is due out at 10 a.m. ET.

World markets: European shares were lower in midday trading. The FTSE 100 in Britain lost 0.5%, France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.1% and Germany’s DAX fell 0.9%.

Asian markets ended mixed. The Shanghai Composite rallied 2.2% but Japan’s Nikkei tumbled 1.2%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.9%.

Dollar and commodities: The dollar was up against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

U.S. light crude oil for August delivery edged down 2 cents to $76.52 a barrel.

COMEX gold’s August contract fell $2.60 to $1,179.30 per ounce.

Bonds: Treasury prices rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year note down to 2.95% from 2.96% late Monday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

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