(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock

markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)

*

Futures up: Dow 0.24%, S&P 500 0.13%, Nasdaq 0.13%

April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were

slightly higher on Tuesday as the Trump administration signaled

easing tariffs on the auto sector and investors awaited key

earnings and economic data for more direction.

President Donald Trump's administration will move to reduce

the impact of his automotive tariffs by alleviating some duties

imposed on foreign parts in domestically manufactured cars, and

keeping tariffs on cars made abroad from piling on top of other

ones, officials said.

Shares of automakers Ford and Tesla rose 1.1%

and 0.8%, respectively, while General Motors ( GM ) gained 0.9%

ahead of its quarterly results.

Investors are also awaiting more clarity on the state of

U.S.-China trade negotiations, on a busy day for earnings from

companies including Coca-Cola and United Parcel Service ( UPS )

.

Consumer confidence and JOLTs job openings are also

scheduled for the day, while U.S. first-quarter GDP and nonfarm

payrolls are expected later in the week.

Four of the "Magnificent Seven" group of megacap stocks -

Meta Platforms ( META ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Apple ( AAPL ) and

Amazon.com ( AMZN ) - will report quarterly results this week.

"It shouldn't really be especially surprising that

participants took something of a 'wait-and-see' approach to

proceedings ... with conviction lacking across the board, and

markets largely meandering along in a relatively directionless

fashion," said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at

Pepperstone.

At 5:25 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 96 points, or

0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 7.25 points, or 0.13%,

and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 25.25 points, or 0.13%.

The S&P 500 closed Monday with marginal gains, rising

for a fifth straight session in its best winning streak since

November. Indexes have clawed back some losses this month on

hopes for a de-escalation in trade tensions between the U.S. and

China.

Still, all three major indexes remain down for the year,

with the S&P 500 on track to fall about 1.5% this month.

First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to

rise 10.9% from a year ago. That is higher than an early-April

estimate for a 7.8% rise, but many companies have warned of the

new tariffs impacting their outlook.

NXP Semiconductors NV ( NXPI ) fell 8.1% after the company

only slightly beat expectations for revenue, and announced CEO

Kurt Sievers would retire by the end of the year and insider

Rafael Sotomayor would succeed him.