us stock index futures were trading lower tuesday as investor checked consumer health with april retail sales and awaited news on debt ceiling negotiations later in the day on monday the dow jones industrial average rose 48 points or 014 to 33349 the sp 500 increased 12 points or 03 to 4136 and the nasdaq composite gained 80 points or 066 to 12365 investors eyes are on the us government debt ceiling talks later tuesday between president joe biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy the white house says the meeting will start at 3 pm eastern us treasury secretary janet yellen on monday repeated june 1 as the date when her department may be unable to pay all its bills in the absence of a debtceiling increase mccarthy contradicted recent optimism about a deal by stating the two sides were still far apart concerns about the impact on markets of a technical default by the us has capped recent gains for stocks which came after a betterthanexpected first quarter earnings reporting season and inflation easing to a twoyear low consequently the sp 500 index remains cemented within the 3800 to 4200 range it has inhabited for about six months some analysts were skeptical of a deal occurring soon the negotiations will likely remain tight as republicans ask for decent spending cuts to accept a debt ceiling relief while biden is not willing to compromise on spending into the election year said ipek ozkardeskaya senior analyst at swissquote bank given the uncertainty many traders are choosing to keep their powder dry wall street on monday recorded its lowest volume day of the year according to dow jones market data investors should indeed favor caution argued stephen innes managing partner at spi asset management some investors think we are nearing a point where risk rewards could be more favorable given that politicians historically have given in to the face of crisis although arguably we could enter a very tricky period and discussion could drag out but again one is playing the game of headline poker on either side of the bullish or bearish table which keeps discretionary folks sidelined smart money doesnt flip coins innes wrote in a morning commentary traders are also keeping an eye out for fresh information on the health of the us consumer april retail sales increased 04 buoyed by car sales and consumer online spending online sales were forecast to increase 08 according to economists polled by the wall street journal stripping out cars and gas sales climbed 06 earlier tuesday investors also got a look at consumers through the window of home depot hd fiscal first quarter earnings other us economic updates set for release include industrial production and capacity utilization for april at 915 am followed at 10 am by march business inventories and may home builder confidence theres also a flurry of fed officials speaking including cleveland fed president loretta mester at 815 am richmond fed president tom barkin at 1030 am new york fed president john williams at 1215 am and atlanta fed president raphael bostic and chicago fed president austan goolsbee on a panel starting at 7 pm this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal