Wall Street set for a mixed start

The main Wall Street indices are expected to open mostly lower on Tuesday except for the narrowly-based Dow Jones 30-share index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is tipped to edge 19 points higher to 23,132 but the more broadly-based S&P 500 is seen giving up 4 points at 4,189 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is expected to slide 20 points to 13,759. Drugs giant Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), which unlike its Anglo-Swedish counterpart AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) is not providing its COVID vaccine at cost, has lifted earnings guidance on the back of better-than-expected take-up of its vaccine. DuPont de Nemours Inc (NYSE:DD), the speciality materials, chemicals and agricultural products conglomerate, also lifted its full-year outlook after its first-quarter sales and earnings beat the market’s expectations. Today will see the release of US factory orders and the US trade balance. Factory orders for March are expected to have risen 1.3% in March after falling 0.8%, while the trade deficit is expected to widen to US$74.3bn from February’s US$71.1bn. Four things to watch for on Tuesday: Earnings reports are due today from a number of major firms including telecoms giant T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS), video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) and oil & gas explorer ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) Shares in diagnostics firm Precipio Inc (NASDAQ:PRPO) are also in focus after the firm launched its rapid COVID-19 antibody test on Amazon overnight Pharmacy chain CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) may get a look in after it upgraded its outlook and beat expectations with its latest earnings Crypto markets may also come to the fore after meme-inspired crypto Dogecoin surged in value following its listing on trading platform eToro