Yahoo Finance 
US STOCKS-Wall St set to open lower as consumer spending slows
* June consumer spending records smallest gain in four months
* Oil prices hit six-month low
* Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN - news) falls after profit forecast cut
* Diamond Offshore jumps after results handily beat expectations
* Futures: S&P down 1.25 pts, Nasdaq down 1.25 pts, Dow up 4 pts (Adds details, comment, updates prices)
By Tanya Agrawal
Aug 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open slightly lower on Monday as U.S. consumer spending in June recorded its smallest gain in four months, suggesting the economy lost some momentum at the end of the second quarter.
Investors are also awaiting another batch of earnings reports - AIG, Allstate and General Growth Properties report after the market closes on Monday.
The U.S. Commerce Department said consumer spending rose 0.2 percent after a downwardly revised 0.7 percent increase in May.
Investors have been keeping a sharp eye on economic data for clues regarding the timing of the first rate increase in nearly a decade. The U.S. Federal Reserve has said it will hike rates only when it sees a sustained recovery in the economy.
On Friday, wage data showed that U.S. labor costs in the second quarter rose the least in 33 years.
"There are temporary setbacks but overall the Fed is on course to raise rates in September. The market is also more focused on the pace rather than the timing of the increase," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital (Other OTC: CGHC - news) in New York.
S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.25 points, or 0.06 percent, with 136,468 contracts traded at 8:34 a.m. ET. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 1.25 points, or 0.03 percent, on volume of 19,103 contracts, while Dow e-minis were up 4 points, or 0.02 percent, with 14,674 contracts changing hands.
Wall Street closed lower on Friday following poor results from Exxon Mobil (Swiss: XOM.SW - news) and Chevron (Swiss: CVX.SW - news) and a decline in oil prices amid oversupply concerns.
Oil prices hit six-month lows earlier in the day, knocked by fresh evidence of growing oversupply and data highlighting slowing demand in China, leaving crude prices on course for their weakest third-quarter performance since the financial crisis in 2008.
The Greek stock market slumped when it reopened on Monday after being shut for five weeks.
In U.S. data, construction spending numbers for June is expected at 10 a.m. ET and automobile sales for July are scheduled to be released at 1:30 p.m. ET.
With more than half of the S&P 500 companies having reported their second-quarter results, analysts expect overall earnings to edge up 0.9 percent and revenue to decline 3.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) data.
Tyson Foods shares fell 8.5 percent to $40.60 in premarket trading after the biggest U.S. meat processor cut its profit forecast for the year, citing export market disruptions in its beef business and high cattle costs.
Diamond Offshore rose 7 percent to $23.50 after the offshore rig contractor reported a much higher-than-expected quarterly profit.
PartnerRe (NYSE: PRE - news) was up 1.9 percent at $138.65 after Italian holding company Exor said it would buy the company for $6.9 billion, ending a prolonged battle for the reinsurer and trumping a rival bid from Axis Capital Holdings . Axis (Stockholm: AXIS.ST - news) was unchanged at $57.56. (Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
