Brace yourself for a snowy blizzard and a blizzard of earnings to hit Wall Street on Tuesday.
Here are the five things you need to know before the opening bell rings in New York:
1. Snow won’t stop markets: The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq plan to be open as usual on Tuesday, despite the blizzard that slammed into New York overnight.
However, volume may be lower than normal as many traders opt to stay home.
“Market liquidity may dry out a bit,” warned Societe Generale currency strategist Sebastian Galy.
U.S. stock futures are all pointing slightly lower ahead of the open.
It’s worth noting that natural gas futures are shooting up by about 3.5% in New York. Other major commodity markets were relatively quiet Tuesday.
2. Earnings season in full swing: Procter & Gamble, American Airlines, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, and Caterpillar will report quarterly earnings before the opening bell.
Apple, Yahoo, and AT&T will report after the close.
3. Market mover — Microsoft: Shares in Microsoft are down nearly 4% in premarket trading after the company reported a drop in quarterly profit, largely due to the ongoing restructuring of the company. But sales are growing for just about every product Microsoft makes, except for Windows.
4. International markets overview: European markets are mostly dipping in early trading, though the Swiss stock exchange is up by 1.5%. Swiss markets are clawing back some of the losses endured earlier this month after the central bank allowed the currency to float freely instead of being pegged to the euro.
Asian markets ended with mixed results.
5. Monday market recap: The Dow Jones industrial average gained a mere 6 points on Monday, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both put on about 0.3%.
