Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slipped on Tuesday, led by losses in shares of megacaps Tesla and Apple, while investors gauged mixed earnings reports from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for insights into the health of capital markets and dealmaking.
Tesla (TSLA.O) shed 1.5% in premarket trading after CEO Elon Musk said he would be uncomfortable growing the automaker to be a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without having at least 25% voting control of the company.
Apple (AAPL.O) fell 1.6% after offering rare discounts on its iPhones in China on competition pressures, just days after the tech giant was overtaken by Microsoft (MSFT.O) as the world's most valuable firm.
On the fourth-quarter earnings front, Goldman Sachs(GS.N) reported a 51% rise in profit as its traders capitalized on a nascent market recovery and its asset and wealth business revenue rose. However, Morgan Stanley's (MS.N) profit dropped on one-time charges tied to a special assessment by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The lenders' shares were up 0.5% and 2.2%, respectively.
Their earnings follow lower profits reported by Wells Fargo (WFC.N), Bank of America (BAC.N), Citigroup (C.N) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) on Friday, as banks grapple with special charges, job cuts and souring consumer loans.
Of the 29 S&P 500 firms that have reported results as of Friday, 93.1% have beaten analysts' earnings expectations, according to LSEG data.
Wall Street finished the previous week higher as investors continue to price in an around 70% chance of the Federal Reserve delivering a 25-basis-point rate cut in March - despite mixed inflation data and a lack of supporting voices among policymakers for a quick start to monetary policy easing.
UBS Global Research boosted its 2024 year-end target for the S&P 500 (.SPX) on Tuesday to 5,150, representing a nearly 8% upside from current levels.
Despite briefly surpassing its previous record closing high last week, the benchmark index has faced resistance to breaching its highest intra-day level, hit in January 2022.
Investors will parse Fed Board Governor Christopher Waller's remarks during the day, after a report said Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, a voting member this year, said inflation could "see-saw" if policymakers cut rates too soon, warning that inflation's descent towards the 2% target was likely to slow in the coming months.
Economic data including December retail sales, industrial production and housing data, due throughout the week, will also be on investors' watch list.
At 7:36 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 113 points, or 0.30%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 19.25 points, or 0.40%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 78.5 points, or 0.46%.
Dow-component Boeing (BA.N) declined 2.1% as the Federal Aviation Administration extended the grounding of its 737 MAX 9 airplanes indefinitely for new safety checks, and brokerage Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to "equal weight" from "overweight".
PayPal (PYPL.O) lost 1.7%. Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, received a money-transmitter license from Utah on Monday, as the company explores adding a payments feature to the social media platform.
Donald Trump-linked stocks SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC.O) and Phunware (PHUN.O) jumped 6.4% and 49.4%, respectively, after the former U.S. president won resoundingly in the first 2024 Republican presidential contest in Iowa on Monday.
Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
