Reuters/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Sculptures made entirely of Lego bricks, created by contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya, are seen at the White House in Washington.
India cut rates. The Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly lowered its repo rate 25 basis points to 6.25% at Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel's first policy meeting. The Indian rupee is weaker by 0.1% at 66.5425 per dollar.
The Reserve Bank of Australia kept policy on hold. Australia's central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 1.50%, as expected, while noting, "Part-time employment has been growing strongly, while growth in full-time employment has been subdued." The Australian dollar is little changed at .7670 against the US dollar.
The British pound is the lowest it's been since 1985. Sterling is down 0.7% at 1.2756 versus the dollar despite Britain's construction PMI surging back into expansionary territory with a print of 52.3, well ahead of the 49.0 that economists had been expecting.
Goldman Sachs says big money investors are dumping stocks. The investment bank says mutual funds could be net sellers of stocks for the first time in four years. "Low levels of equity fund cash and significant outflows from mutual funds drive our mutual fund net equity purchases forecast of -$25 billion in 2016," Goldman's chief US equity strategist, David Kostin, wrote in a client note on Friday.
Deutsche Bank has surrendered most of its gains. Shares of the investment bank are up 0.6% in Germany after opening to a gain of about 3%. Tuesday's advance comes after German markets were closed on Monday for Reunification Day.
Salesforce is buying Krux for about $700 million. Salesforce has agreed to pay about $340 million in cash plus stock for Krux, a company that monitors traffic across multiple devices, TechCrunch reports.
Manhattan apartment sales tumbled. Sales of existing condos and co-ops sank 20% year-over-year in the third quarter and the number of apartments listed for sale are up 53% compared to 2013, Bloomberg reports, citing data from Miller Samuel Inc. and Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Stock markets around the world are higher. Japan's Nikkei (+0.8%) was out front in Asia and Britain's FTSE (+1.6%) leads the way in Europe. S&P 500 futures are up 2.50 points at 2,155.75.
Earnings reporting is light. Darden Restaurants reports ahead of the opening bell and Micron Technology releases its quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data trickles out. US crude oil inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is little changed at 1.62%.