U.S. stocks appear to be on the back foot early on Tuesday, with index futures trading modestly lower in early pre-market activity. Caution reigns supreme as traders anxiously await the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday. A hawkish stance, either in the post-meeting policy statement or Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks, could trigger a market pullback.  However, recent scorching inflation data has already tempered market expectations for rate cuts. Adding to the market’s volatility, the busy earnings season commences this week. Company results and their outlooks for the future could significantly impact stock prices. Futures Performance (+/-) Nasdaq 100 -0.16% S&P 500 -0.15% Dow -0.08% R2K -0.51% In premarket trading on Tuesday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) climbed 0.20% to $509.27, and the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 0.29% to $432.27, according to Benzinga Pro data. Cues From The Last Session: Stocks closed Monday’s session on a positive note, although trading was marked by some degree of volatility. The major indices opened the session higher, as the positive momentum from Friday carried over into the new week, with Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) leading from the front. They stayed above the unchanged line for the better part of the morning before reversing course in late afternoon trading. While apprehension ahead of the week’s key earnings and data was attributed to the weakness, the stock recovered thereafter to close higher for a second straight session. Market participants also blamed the intraday slide on an increase in the U.S. Treasury’s June quarter borrowing estimates. The gains were led by consumer discretionary stocks, while communication services stocks dragged. Index Performance (+/-) Value Nasdaq Composite +0.35% 15,983.08 S&P 500 Index +0.32% 5,116.17 Dow Industrials +0.38% 38,386.09 Russell 2000 +0.70% 2,016.03 Insights From Analysts: Ahead of the Fed meeting, Wharton Professor Jeremy Siegel, Senior Economist to WisdomTree, said in his weekly commentary, that the market is currently pricing in only ...