US stocks were set to open lower on Tuesday in thin trading volume following the Christmas holiday as losses in Apple and a bunch of chipmakers weighed. Apple's shares fell 2.6 percent to $170.47 in premarket trading after Taiwan's Economic Daily reported the company would slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X in the quarter.
Shares of Apple suppliers, including Broadcom, Skyworks Solutions, Finisar and Lumentum Holdings, fell between 1.47 percent and 3.4 percent. Most markets around the world, including parts of Europe and Asia, were closed on Tuesday. "It's going to be slow trading for most of the week. A market that's going to stay within a trading range, we could have a plus or a negative day, but nothing exciting," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.
At 8:34 am ET (1334 GMT), Dow e-minis were down 45 points, or 0.18 percent, with 9,048 contracts changing hands. S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.5 points, or 0.06 percent, with 24,337 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 33.5 points, or 0.52 percent, on volume of 13,201 contracts.
The indexes clung onto small weekly gains last week, after a long-promised Republican bill to cut corporate tax rates was ratified and a short-term spending bill that averted a government shutdown was approved. A report due at 10:00 am ET is likely to show consumer confidence index fell to 128.1 in December from 129.5 in the previous month.
Sucampo Pharma jumped about 5 percent after Mallinckrodt said it would acquire the drugmaker for $1.2 billion, to gain access to its constipation drug Amitiza. Mallinckrodt shares edged up 0.7 percent. Bitcoin traded up more than 10 percent at $15,340 recovering from last week's selloff which saw the cryptocurrency fall below $12,000. Shares of Riot Blockchain, Longfin Corp and Overstock.com rose between 3 percent and 12 percent.
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