Wall Street set for muted open a day after sharp selloff

By Abhiram Nandakumar

REUTERS - U.S. stocks futures recouped most of their losses on Tuesday as investors recover from a bruising selloff on the first trading day of the year.

Stock markets plunged on Monday after weak Chinese economic data rekindled fears of a global slowdown. That prompted a near-$20 billion injection by the People's Bank of China to stabilize its markets.

Chinese stocks closed mixed on Tuesday after falling 7 percent on Monday.

Global stocks were down on Tuesday but off the lows they hit in the previous session as markets looked to stabilize.

"I think everybody's finally getting settled back in and they're trying to assess really how global growth is going to impact their investments for the rest of the year," Kevin Kelly, CIO of Recon Capital Partners.

Crude oil was lower as investors fretted about the state of the Chinese economy and a stronger dollar.

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Monday, with the Dow making its worst start to a year since 2008. Weak U.S. factory data also added to the worries.

At 8:20 a.m. ET (1320 GMT), Dow e-minis were down 27 points, or 0.16 percent, with 45,981 contracts changing hands. S&P 500 e-minis were down 2.5 points, or 0.12 percent, with 255,147 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 5 points, or 0.11 percent, on volume of 44,085 contracts.

U.S. automakers are scheduled to report December sales figures on Tuesday, with estimates pointing to a decline to 18.10 million units from 18.19 million units in November.

Dupont's shares were down 1.5 percent at $62.10 in premarket trading after Citigroup cut its rating on the Dow component to "neutral".

Royal Caribbean was down 1.4 percent at $96.80 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to "equal weight".

Eli Lilly was down 2.2 percent at $81.05 after it set profit and revenue forecast for 2016.

First Solar was up 4.6 percent at $69.64 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy".

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)