Wall Street seen lower, manufacturing report eyed

After U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday, futures for major US indexes (DJc1) (SPc1) (NDc1) pointed to a start between 0.1 and 0.2 percent lower on Tuesday.

The indicative Dow Jones index (DJI: - ), which tracks the Dow stocks as they are traded in Frankfurt, was down 0.4 percent.

The report from the Institute for Supply Management, due at 10 a.m. EDT, is likely to show that U.S manufacturing activity grew at a slower pace in August, after several regional reports came in lower.

The median forecast in a Reuters poll of 81 economists was for the ISM's manufacturing index to come in at 53.0 in August, compared with 53.8 in July.

"The markets are set to closely eye the ISM index -- it is always one of the key indicators," said Alexander Burger, analyst at German regional bank LBBW.

"We are expecting a significantly stronger decline than the market consensus -- and if we're right and that comes as a surprise, then it could add downward pressure."

U.S. construction spending and auto sales data are also scheduled for Tuesday.

On the corporate side, Burger said a focus may be the lawsuit in which Oracle Corp (NasdaqGS: - ) is suing rival SAP AG (XETRA: - ) for "corporate theft on a grand scale."

The U.S. District Court in San Francisco is set to hold a case conference to determine the next steps on Tuesday, after the two firms submitted their positions last week.

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average (DJI: - ) closed up 0.90 percent at 13,357.74. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ( - ) ended up 1.12 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq: - ) gained 1.21 percent.

U.S. stocks were bolstered on Friday amid optimism White House-proposed mortgage assistance could ease liquidity conditions.

President George W. Bush set out measures to help homeowners with subprime mortgages refinance into new loans, but warned that the government's job was not to bail out speculators.

Bush's comments were in concert with remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that it was not the central bank's responsibility to protect lenders and investors who made mistakes.

Bernanke also acknowledged the problems in subprime lending and reiterated the central bank would take the necessary steps to shelter the economy from turmoil in financial markets.