US stock futures opens low after anti-euro comments from Italian lawmaker

U.S. stocks trod water on Tuesday, pressured by worries of a eurozone breakup after anti-euro comments from an Italian lawmaker.

Italy would enjoy more favourable economic conditions outside of the eurozone, said Claudio Borghi, a eurosceptic who chairs the budget committee of the lower house of parliament. That sparked a selloff in Italian banks and pressured world stocks.

"Clearly a headwind coming into the day was European markets being soft... early trade is more driven by what's going on in the overall markets," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR in New York.

"Banks and bluechip stocks, in general, are off a bit and that's a little bit of a pressure point," Hogan said.

Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, led by a 0.57 per cent drop in financial stocks as U.S. lenders such as Bank of America and Citigroup and Wells Fargo followed their Italian peers lower.

That was ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at 12:45 p.m ET and Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on banking regulation.

The defensive utility sector was the top gainer, rising more than 1 per cent.

Facebook dropped 1 per cent, but the impact was blunted by gains in technology stocks, especially a continuing rally in chipmakers.

At 10:08 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15.03 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 26,666.24, the S&P 500 was down 1.51 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 2,923.08 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 9.82 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 8,027.48.

Intel gained 3.5 per cent and Micron 2.5 per cent, helping the Philadelphia SE semiconductor index jump 0.8 per cent, its best gain in what is set to be a four-day rally.

PepsiCo fell 1.7 per cent as weaker-than-expected margins overshadowed a quarterly profit that beat estimates.

U.S. Steel Corp fell 3.8 per cent after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock on concerns around free cash flow generation and operational inconsistencies.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.11-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.50-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 11 new 52-week highs and seven new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 18 new highs and 56 new lows.