Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a higher open for Wall Street on Tuesday, getting a lift from continued hopes the European Central Bank will take action to support the euro.

European stocks were mixed Tuesday while Asian shares finished mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.7% to close at 8,695.06

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The economic calendar in the U.S. on Tuesday includes data on personal income and spending for June at 8:30 a.m. EDT; the employment cost index for the second quarter at 8:30 a.m.; the Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index for May at 9 a.m.; the Chicago purchasing managers index for July at 9:45 a.m.; and consumer confidence for July at 10 a.m.

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U.S. stocks on Monday slumped amid some mild profit-taking ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting that begins Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down less than 3 points, or 0.02%, at 13,073. The blue-chip index snapped a three-day winning streak.

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BP (BP), the British oil giant, posted underlying replacement cost profit in the second quarter of $3.7 billion, down from $5.7 billion a year earlier. Including charges, BP reported a loss for the period of $1.4 billion.

BP wrote down the value of its assets by $5 billion -- $2.7 billion for U.S. refineries and $2.1 billion for U.S. shale gas assets. It also took an additional provision of $847 million for the Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster, bringing the total it has set aside to more than $38 billion.

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Pfizer (PFE) is expected by analysts to post a second-quarter profit Tuesday of 54 cents a share on revenue of $14.87 billion.

The stock of the drug giant and Dow component has outperformed so far in 2012, rising more than 10%. Pfizer has beat earnings estimates for eight straight quarters.

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Other companies slated to report early Monday include Aetna (AET), Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), Coach (COH), Ecolab (ECL), Entergy (ETR), Goodyear Tire (GT), Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC), Thomson Reuters (TRI), Tyco International (TYC) and U.S. Steel (X).

Reporting after Tuesday's closing bell are Affymetrix (AFFX), Allstate (ALL), Atmel (ATML), BMC Software (BMC), Denny's (DENN), Digital River (DRIV), Electronic Arts (ERTS), Oclaro (OCLR), Papa John's International (PZZA), Peet's Coffee & Tea (PEET), Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) and Veritas Software (VRTS).

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