Stock market today: Wall Street trudges higher on bank earnings; US retail sales data arrives soon

Wall Street is logging tiny gains early Tuesday with earnings season revving up and upcoming U.S. retail sales data that could influence a decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up less than 0.1% higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.2%.

UnitedHealth shares edged up less than 1% after the health insurance giant beat second-quarter expectations but remained cautious on its annual outlook as it continued to eat costs from a massive cyberattack this year.

Dating app company Match Group jumped 7.7% after activist investor Starboard Value announced a 6.6% stake in the company that owns Match, Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid.

Several banks also reported earnings before the bell. Bank of America rose 2% after it beat Wall Street's revenue and profit targets; PNC shares were stagnant after the Pittsburgh bank beat analyst forecasts and Morgan Stanley shares fell 3%, even as the company reported its net income, or profit, jumped by 41% year-over-year to $3.1 billion.

The Commerce Department reports on June sales figures at U.S. retailers on Tuesday. Economists believe that retail sales rose a meager 0.1% last month, the same reading as May as high interest rates are expected to continue to pressure American consumers. Shopping by consumers accounts for nearly 70% of the U.S. economy and retail sales are watched closely — by investors, economists and the Federal Reserve — as a measure of economic health.

Expectations are rising that the Fed will cut its main interest rate sometime this year after keeping it at two-decade highs for the better part of the past two years in a bid to stifle inflation. The U.S. central bank's next policy meeting is in two weeks.

In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX lost 0.6%, the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.8% and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%.

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.2% to 41,275.08 after reopening from a holiday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 1.6% to 17,727.98 and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.1% to 2,976.30.

Markets were still digesting a set of weaker economic data of China released Monday, when the government reported that annual economic growth had fallen from to 4.7% in the last quarter from 5.3% in January-March.

This led some economists to cut their growth forecasts. Goldman Sachs revised its forecast for China’s annual economic growth to 4.9% from a previous estimate of 5.0%. JP Morgan cut their full-year outlook for China’s 2024 GDP growth to 4.7% from an earlier projection of 5.2%.

Investors are watching to see what policies might emerge from a four-day meeting of senior officials of China's ruling Communist Party that is expected to set strategies and policies for the coming decade.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2% to 2,866.09 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% lower to 7,999.30.

In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost $1.36 to $80.55 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $1.25 to $83.60 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 158.36 Japanese yen from 158.07 yen. The euro rose to $1.0903 from $1.0894.

On Monday, Wall Street’s positive momentum kept driving it upward.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, coming off its 10th winning week in the last 12, lifted in large part by expectations that inflation is slowing enough to convince the Federal Reserve to ease interest rates soon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5% to 40,211.72 and set its own record, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% and ended a bit short of its all-time high.