U.S. stock index futures struggled for direction on Tuesday ahead of a crucial consumer price inflation report later in the week that could firm up bets on the size of the interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve on Sept. 18.

Market Snapshot

At 8:12 a.m., Dow E-minis were down 4 points, or 0.01%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 33.75 points, or 0.18%, and S&P 500 E-minis were up 10 points, or 0.18%.

Pre-Market Movers

Oracle rose 8% in premarket trading after the enterprise software company posted better-than expected fiscal first-quarter adjusted earningsand revenue of $13.31 billion topped estimates of $13.23 billion. Oracle said revenue from cloud services and license support rose 7% from a year earlier to $10.52 billion and beat predictions of $10.47 billion. The company also announced a multi-cloud partnership with Amazon.com ’ s Amazon Web Services.

Rubrik declined 6%. The data-security software company reported a narrower-than expected fiscal second-quarter loss and boosted its fiscal-year outlook after revenue in the quarter of $205 million jumped 35% from a year earlier and beat analysts ’ estimates of $196.1 million.

Apple finished Monday ’ s session slightly higher after the tech giant unveiled the iPhone 16 with artificial-intelligence capabilities. The "Apple Intelligence" tools include such things as an improved Siri voice assistant and text-generation and photo-editing. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the new iPhones would be the first "designed from the ground up for Apple Intelligence and its breakthrough capabilities." The stock was down 1.1% in premarket trading, however, after theEuropean Court of Justiceupheld an order for Ireland to recoup up to € 13 billion ( $14.35 billion ) plus interest in taxes from Apple.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the Truth Social platform, was up 0.4% ahead of thefirst debate between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harrison Tuesday evening.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise declined 5.3% after beginning a public offering of $1.35 billion of Series C mandatory company convertible preferred stock to help fund its purchase ofJuniper Networks.

GameStop is the highlight on Tuesday ’ s earnings calendar. The stock was up 1.9% ahead of its quarterly report scheduled for after the closing bell.

Market News

EU's Vestager triumphs in crackdown on Apple's tax deal, Google's practices

EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager scored two major wins on Tuesday as Europe's top court backed her crackdown against Apple's Irish tax deal and Google's anti-competitive practices in two landmark cases.

Vestager, who ends her term in November, has made a name for herself going after Big Tech's tax arrangements with some EU countries and attempts to stifle smaller rivals. The court victories could embolden her successor to take a similar tack.

China proposes negotiations with EU to resolve electric vehicle tariff dispute

China has renewed its offer for talks with the European Commission to address economic and trade frictions to try to ease impending punitive tariffs on China-made electric vehicles.

During a meeting with the European Commission's director general for trade on Monday, Vice Commerce Minister Li Fei said China was willing to engage in dialogue and consultations, his ministry said in a statement.