Wall Street headed for mixed start ahead of US GDP reading

US stocks are set for an indecisive start ahead of US third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data due later today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are both expected to open a handful of points lower while the S&P 500 is tipped to climb 7 points to open at around 3,701. Traders can now stop fretting about the coronavirus fiscal stimulus package – until the next one is due – now that lawmakers passed the package into law yesterday. As for the GDP release, economists are expecting the economy to have grown at an annualised rate of 33.1%, unchanged from the initial estimate. “It’s probably not going to be revised very much, and even if it is, frankly who cares? It’s ancient history by now. The business cycle is dominated by the pandemic, meaning that Q3 has no predictive power for telling us how Q4 is likely to turn out. With the pandemic being so much worse in Q4 than it was in Q3, there’s no question but that the economy is going to be affected,” said Marshall Gittler at BDSwiss. Also due for release are existing home sales numbers, where the expectation is for November’s total to have slipped to 6.7mln from October’s 6.85mln. “Again, is this due to economic conditions or the virus?” asks Mr Gittler. “Maybe people simply don’t want to go look at houses now. Or perhaps the pent-up demand from earlier in the year, when people really couldn’t look at houses, is starting to fade. “Already in October, more new homes had been sold in the US this year than in 2018 or 2019 (54.7mn vs 53.1mn and 53.8mn, respectively). Some slowdown would be natural, although of course, nothing is 'natural' about this year,” he added. Three things to watch for on Tuesday: Earnings reports continue to trickle in as 2020 draws to a close, with second quarter numbers from business services firm Cintas Corp (NASDAQ:CTAS) and third quarter figures from used car retailer CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) in the diary for Tuesday Investors may also take some interest in shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:APPL) after reports emerged that the tech giant is planning to develop a passenger vehicle by 2024, a move that could potentially rival Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) There is also likely to be continued fallout over the new US stimulus bill, with many already venting their anger online about the size of the US$600 stimulus payments, which many consider to be too small to help the thousands of Americans in financial trouble as a result of the pandemic