By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open slightly lower on Tuesday, pressured by a second straight day of weak data out of Germany, the euro zone's largest economy.
German industrial output for August slid 4 percent, the biggest fall in 5-1/2 years, a day after a report showed industrial orders had their biggest monthly drop since 2009.
Major U.S. equity indexes fell in a choppy session on Monday, with traders wary about the effects of both a strong dollar and economic weakness in Europe on corporate results.
A vacuum of market catalysts will only be filled when earnings start in earnest next week according to Jack De Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
"There's not a lot to trade on until earnings. That leaves geopolitics in charge," he said, linking the weakness in German data to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and economic sanctions against Russia, a major business partner of Berlin.
"There is also concern foreign currency moves are going to impact earnings negatively," he said.
The U.S. dollar strengthened 0.3 percent against the euro on Tuesday, trading near two year highs hit on Friday, with the euro also weighed by the German data.
S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 4 points and fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract, indicated a lower open. Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures fell 42 points and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures lost 6 points.
Sodastream tumbled 16.9 percent premarket with 1.8 million shares changing hands, after it estimated third-quarter revenue that fell short of analysts' expectations. The stock's 10-day volume average is a tick above 700,000.
On the New York Stock Exchange, U.S.-traded shares of Nokia dropped 2.1 percent in heavy volume after it said it will suspend production at its Chennai facility in India next month as the company has yet to resolve a tax dispute with the Indian government.
GT Advanced Technology shares were attracting the most volume on the Nasdaq a day after the sapphire glass maker filed for bankruptcy. Shares were up 8.8 percent to 87 cents in premarket trading after a 92.8 percent plunge to 80 cents on Monday. On Friday, the stock closed at $11.05.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jeffrey Benkoe and Nick Zieminski)
