Ready for another run at 13,000

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks appeared poised to take another run at the 13,000 mark for the Dow Tuesday as investors await the latest earnings and reading on the battered real estate market.

Stock futures were mixed, but a comparison to fair value, which predicts the direction of stocks at the start of trading, pointed to a slightly higher open.

U.S. Stocks closed slightly lower Monday, ending a streak of three straight record highs for the Dow and six-year highs for other major indexes. But the decline still left the blue chip measure just over 80 points away from crossing the 13,000 mark for the first time.

At 10 a.m. ET the National Association of Realtors is due to report on existing home sales in March and economists are forecasting the pace of sales fell to an annual rate of 6.5 million from 6.7 million. The latest consumer confidence survey from the Conference Board is also due at 10 a.m.

Among the earnings lifting futures early Tuesday Chemical maker DuPont (Charts, Fortune 500) reported results that beat analysts' forecasts, as it earned $1.07 per share excluding special items, four cents better than the consensus estimate and up from 93 cents a year earlier.

Also helping, are better than expected results and guidance from Texas Instruments (Charts, Fortune 500) after the bell Monday. The leading maker of semiconductors used in cell phones said it had worked through a previously reported inventory glut. Shares gained 9 percent in after-hours trading.

Telecom AT&T (Charts, Fortune 500), is the other Dow component due to report earnings before the bell Tuesday. Analysts are forecasting improved results there as well.

Overall, stocks in Asia closed slightly higher, although Japan's Nikkei closed down narrowly. Major indexes in Europe were lower in early trading. Shares of BP (Charts) fell in London trading after the company missed earnings forecasts due to lower oil prices and production.

Oil prices fell in early trading Tuesday after Monday's jump in prices on concerns over elections in oil producer Nigeria. U.S. light crude lost 19 cents to $65.70 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices were little changed in early trading, leaving the yield on the 10-year note nearly the 4.64 percent level reached late Monday. The dollar also was little changed against the euro but higher against the yen.

In other corporate news, U.S. automaker General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500) was overtaken by Toyota Motor (Charts) in terms of global auto sales in the first quarter for the first time. Shares of Dow component GM fell in early trading in Frankfurt on the news, but shares of Toyota also lost ground at the close of trading in Japan.

Shares of tech bellwether Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) rose about 0.7 percent in Frankfurt on a report in the Wall Street Journal that its former chief financial officer Fred Anderson agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle a federal probe into the improper backdating of stock options there.