Wall St. not so confident

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Economic concerns could continue to weigh on U.S. stocks when the opening bell rings Tuesday on Wall Street.

At 7:30 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were slightly lower.

Investors will be looking for direction from the Conference Board's March report on consumer confidence, due at 10 a.m. ET.

The reading will be the first look at how consumers are weathering the recent market selloff and woes in the subprime mortgage sector. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect the index slipped to 109 in March from 112.5 in February.

With the consumer confidence report the only release on the economic calendar, stocks could be in for another day of choppy trading.

"There's no big directional move in store. We're still in a wait-and-see mode," Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co., said.

Investors are already jittery after a weak reading on new home sales released Monday fueled worries that the slowdown in the housing market could send the economy into a recession.

Homebuilder Lennar reported dismal earnings early Tuesday, adding to those concerns. The company said its first-quarter net income plunged 73 percent due to weakness in the real estate market and problems in subprime lending.

But Hogan said a lot of the negative news swirling around residential homebuilders has already been factored into the market.

He said investors are more focused on the slew of economic data due later this week and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on Wednesday.

Among companies in the news, embattled subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial is widely expected to file for bankruptcy soon. Morgan Stanley (Charts) said Monday it would auction nearly $2.5 billion in residential mortgages from the subprime mortgage lender.

Defaults in the subprime mortgage sector, which gives home loans to borrowers with poor credit histories, have been rising as home prices have fallen and sales have slowed.

Sprint Nextel (Charts) said it intends to lower its fee for downloading digital music to 99 cents a song, matching the pricing of Apple's (Charts) iTunes store.

Yahoo (Charts) announced a new set of services aimed at placing targeted ads for Web searches conducted on cell phones.

Oil prices fell. U.S. light crude eased 40 cents to $62.51 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices rose. The 10-year note yield fell to 4.59 percent from 4.60 percent late Monday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In global trade, stocks in Asia finished mostly lower while European shares gained in morning trading.

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