Rally may run out of steam

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The stock rally which has produced a string of Dow records and sent the S&P to six-year highs could run into problems early Tuesday, as futures pointed to a lower open.

Stock futures were lower in early trading, ahead of earnings reports after-the-bell Tuesday from tech bellwether Cisco Systems (Charts, Fortune 500) and media conglomerate Walt Disney (Charts, Fortune 500). Both Cisco and Disney are forecast to post slightly improved earnings, but both were down less than 1 percent in Frankfurt trading early Tuesday.

Investors also await the statement Wednesday from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

Shares of cell phone maker Motorola (Charts, Fortune 500) were down 2.2 percent in Frankfurt trading after the bid of activist shareholder Carl Icahn for a seat on the company's board fell short in a vote announced at the company's annual meeting Monday evening.

In merger news, news service Reuters (Charts) and Canada's financial data service Thomson (Charts) confirmed they are in talks on a possible $17.6 billion deal. Shares of Reuters gained 4.5 percent in London trading.

The Detroit News reported that the Ford family is showing internal dissent about the future of its stake in Ford Motor (Charts, Fortune 500), and that some family members recently pushed to hire Wall Street dealmakers Joseph Perella and Peter Weinberg to advise the company about what to do with its holdings in the troubled automaker. The pair were not hired after what the paper described as a tense meeting in April that revealed growing divisions.

The New York Times reports that Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500), the nation's No. 2 oil company, will agree to pay $25 million to $30 million in fines and admit that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq between 2000 and 2002.

The Dow set a record high for the fifth straight session Monday and the S&P 500, the broader blue chip index, hit another six-year high as it approached its record. But both did so with only narrow gains in Monday trading.

Markets in Asia closed mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei little changed on the day, while major indexes in Europe were also lower in early trading.

Oil prices were higher in early trading. U.S. light crude gained 15 cents to $61.62 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices were little changed, leaving the yield on the 10-year note near the 4.63 percent level reached late Monday. The dollar was also little changed against the yen but higher against the euro.

The only economic report due Tuesday is the government's 10 a.m. reading on wholesale inventories in March.