U.S. Stock Futures Fall as China Cools

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a negative open Tuesday ahead of gauges on the domestic real estate market and on signs of a cooling Chinese economy.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were falling 55 points, or 59.1 points below fair value, at 13,112. Futures for the S&P 500 were down 7.3 points, or 7.5 points below fair value, at 1397, and futures for the Nasdaq were behind by 11.5 points, or 13 points below fair value, at 2716.

U.S. stocks posted gains Monday following a lukewarm housing report and Apple's(AAPL) announcement of how it would deploy its massive cash pile.

On Tuesday, mining giants BHP Billiton(BHP) and Rio Tinto(RIO) both warned of a cooling Chinese economy.

David Joyce, managing director of expansion projects at Rio Tinto, said Tuesday at a conference in Perth, Australia, that "the rate of GDP gross domestic product growth in China is more immediately slowing ... we remain confident on the basis of the figures we have seen, of a soft landing, with solid growth for this year," according to Bloomberg.

BHP's president of iron ore, Ian Ashby, warned of slowing Chinese iron ore demand growth as the country tries to cool its economy.

China also said, starting on Tuesday, it was raising retail gasoline and diesel prices a larger-than-expected 6% to 7%, the sharpest increase in 33 months amid higher oil crude oil prices.

Global stocks and commodities were declining following the news out of China.

The Commerce Department is expected to report at 8:30 a.m. EDT that February housing starts rose to a 700,000 annual pace from a 699,000 clip in the previous month. The bureau, also at 8:30 a.m., is expected to report that building permits for February came in at a 690,000 rate, rising from the 676,000 pace in January.