Futures down: S&P 500 0.36%, Nasdaq 0.51%, Dow 0.15%
Tesla slips as Denmark, Sweden sales drop; Trump-Musk feud
Circle up after applying for US trust bank license
By Sruthi Shankar and Nikhil Sharma
July 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street indexes were set to dip on Tuesday, after touching record highs a day earlier, as investors monitored U.S. trade talks and a voting marathon in Washington over President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite notched all-time closing highs on Monday, capping their best quarter in over a year as hopes for more trade deals and possible rate cuts supported sentiment.
U.S. senators were still voting on Tuesday on a potentially long list of amendments to Trump's bill that is expected to bring a $3.3 trillion hit to the nation's debt pile.
The Republican majority's struggle to pass the bill exemplifies deep divisions within the party over debt. The bill aims to partly cover the cost of the tax reductions with cuts to Medicaid and some food assistance programs for low-income Americans.
Trump said he was open to moving the July 4 deadline he gave fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate to get behind the bill, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects the Senate to pass the bill by the afternoon.
"This version that we hear about is not necessarily the one that's going to pass. So you know that's still something that weighs on investors' minds," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.
Tesla's shares dropped 6.2% premarket after a fresh spat between CEO Elon Musk and Trump over the tax bill, with the president urging the government efficiency department to review the subsidies that Musk's companies have received. Tesla also reported a sales drop for a sixth straight month in Sweden and Denmark in June. Meanwhile, Trump expressed frustration with U.S.-Japan trade negotiations and Bessent warned that countries could be notified of sharply higher tariffs despite good-faith negotiations, phising as a July 9 deadline approaches.
By 8:39 a.m. ET (1239 GMT), S&P 500 e-minis were down 22.5 points, or 0.36%. Nasdaq 100 e-minis dropped 116.5 points, or 0.51% and Dow e-minis slipped 66 points, or 0.15%.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq's rise to record highs marked a stunning recovery in sentiment that was hammered by Trump's chaotic trade policies and geopolitical tensions, with investors betting on AI enthusiasm and earnings momentum to keep the bull run going.
The blue-chip Dow on Monday closed 2.2% below its all-time high touched in December.
S&P Global and ISM's June manufacturing activity surveys, May job openings data as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments at a European Central Bank forum later in the day will be parsed for hints on U.S. monetary policy outlook.
Soft economic data in recent weeks and expectations of Trump picking a dovish central bank head have supported bets of interest rate cuts from the Fed this year and next.
Ahead of Thursday's crucial payrolls data, money markets were pricing in 68 basis points of rate cuts by the end of 2025 and about 131 bps of cuts by October next year, per LSEG data.
Among other stocks, stablecoin firm Circle edged up 1.3% on news it was applying to create a national trust bank in the U.S.
AMC Entertainment Holdings dropped 6.5% after the theater chain operator said it would cut its debt by converting at least $143 million in exchangeable bonds into shares. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)