U.S. stock futures were lower Tuesday morning, indicating stocks would likely start the same. Investors' concerns about the financial sector dampened sentiment, but oil prices continued to decline and could offset some of the negative mood. Still, housing and inflation data are on tap before the market opens today. And of course earnings with The Home Depot already beating investors' expectations this morning but with Staples issuing a warning.

A day after smaller Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) reported a profit drop, The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) followed suit, reporting a 24% profit decline for the second quarter. It held onto its earnings outlook as second-quarter net fell 24% to $1.2 billion, or 71 cents per share. Sales declined 5.4% to $21 billion. Analysts had projected earnings per share of 61 cents on revenue of $20.58 billion. Home Depot shares rose 2% in premarket trading.

Stock futures fell early Tuesday morning, ahead of an inflation reading at the wholesale level. It is rising prices, as well as the worse housing slump in over a century that caused Home Depot's profit to decline 66% when it reported this morning. Other retailers are scheduled to report earnings today, and the concern is many will show they face similar problems.

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Monday despite rising quite steadily until 1:30 p.m. EDT. While leading economic indicators alleviated some concerns over the economy, record crude oil prices, once again, dampened the mood on the Street and the Dow industrials rose 41 points, or 0.32%, the S&P 500 added a point, or 0.09%, but the Nasdaq Composite dropped 12 points, or 0.50%.

Producer price index, a gauge of inflation at the wholesale level, is due out in about an hour, at 8:30 a.m. EDT. The data is expected to show a 0.4% rise in April. Excluding food and energy, core-PPI is expected to show a rise of 0.2% in April.