U.S. stock market index futures hovered around the flatline Tuesday, a day after the S&P 500 logged a fresh closing high, as investors weighed a batch of weak corporate earnings against a better-than-expected S&P/Case-Shiller home price report.
The S&P 500 set a new record close on Monday and the Nasdaq set a 12-year closing high following the positive U.S. home sales report and the naming of the new Italian cabinet, which ended two months of political deadlock.
Among earnings, Pfizer declined after the drugmaker reported quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street expectations, citing the stronger dollar and the spin-off of its animal health unit Zoetis. The company also lowered its full-year outlook.
U.S. Steel slumped after the steelmaker posted a quarterly loss as its sales fell more than 10 percent. And Cummins fell after the heavy-equipment maker reported quarterly results that missed forecasts.
BP gained after the oil giant announced a sharp rise in earnings, with the sale of its Russian venture TNK-BP offsetting a fall in oil and gas production.
Major European banks including Deutsche Bank and UBS both posted better-than-expected first quarter profits. However, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, cut its outlook for full-year growth in its second-biggest market, Brazil, after earnings fell short of expectations.
In macroeconomic news, expectations are high for central banks to continue supporting the global economy with monetary easing, ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting later on Tuesday and the European Central Bank's (ECB) policy review on Thursday.
(Read More: Bernanke Watch: Is He Eyeing the Exit?)
"It is the promise of an extended period of $85 billion per month of Fed asset purchases, together with the heightened expectation of fresh ECB easing measures this week, that is driving sentiment and flows," wrote analysts at National Australia Bank in a report on Tuesday.
(Read More: US Expects First Cut in Debt Since 2007)
On the economic front, single-family home prices jumped in February, posting their best annual gain since in seven years, according to the S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas.
Meanwhile, labor costs rose 0.3 percent in the first quarter, which was less than expected and pointed to benign wage inflation, according to the Labor Department. However, the data may have been distorted by an error found in benefits data for sales and office workers, the department said, but didn't have a major impact on the reading. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 0.5 percent increase in overall labor costs.
In addition, the Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) of manufacturing activity will be watched by markets as an indicator ahead of the national ISM manufacturing survey, due at 9:45 am ET. Economists polled by Reuters expect a reading of 52.5 in April, up from 52.4 in March. PMI index readings above 50 signal an increase or improvement on the prior month.
"We look for a largely unchanged reading in the April Chicago PMI to 52.5 after a print of 52.4 in March. Although the Empire State and Philadelphia Fed indices both declined on the month, the Chicago PMI has been running a bit higher than these other indices recently on a relative basis, and we expect this trend to persist," said Verdi and Chow.
The Conference Board will release its consumer confidence index for April at 10 a.m. Analysts in a Reuters poll forecast a rise to 60.8 from 59.7 last month.
At the end of the week, the government is scheduled to release its widely-watched monthly employment report, which is expected to show 150,000 new non-farm jobs were added in April, according to an estimate from Reuters.
(Read More: The Economy May Stink,but the Market Doesn't Care)
—By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)
Coming Up This Week:
TUESDAY: Chicago PMI, consumer confidence, farm prices, IBM shareholder mtg, Underarmour shareholder mtg, Heinz shareholders vote on Berkshire buyout; Earnings from DreamWorks Animation
WEDNESDAY: Mortgage applications, ADP employment report, PMI manufacturing report, ISM mfg index, construction spending, oil inventories, FOMC mtg announcement, auto sales, McGraw-Hill shareholder mtg, New York Times shareholder mtg, PepsiCo shareholder mtg, JCPenney Martha Stewart shops open; Earnings from Comcast, MasterCard, Merck, Time Warner, CVS Caremark, Chesapeake Energy, Clorox, Humana, Facebook, Visa, Allstate, CBS, Marriott, MetLife, Yelp
THURSDAY: Challenger job-cut report, ECB announcement, international trade, jobless claims, productivity & costs, natural gas inventories, Fed balance sheet/money supply, DirecTV shareholder mtg, UBS shareholder mtg, UPS shareholder mtg, Verizon shareholder mtg; Earnings from GM, Royal Dutch Shell, Sanofi, Kellogg, Beazer Homes, AIG, Gilead Sciences, Kraft Foods
FRIDAY: Nonfarm payrolls, factory orders, ISM non-mfg index, AOL shareholder mtg, Blackstone analyst mtg; Earnings from Berkshire Hathaway
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