(Reuters) – U.S. Stock Index Futures dropped on Tuesday after a volatile start to the week. Investors are keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve meeting as well as major earnings announcements from companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ).

It is likely that the Fed will convene its two day monetary policy meeting in the latter part of the day. The Fed’s timing for increasing key interest rates against inflation will be closely monitored.

Futures traders for Fed Funds are projecting a 25-basis point hike in March and three additional rate increases before the end of this year.

This week’s quarterly earnings season kicks off with megacap growth firms Microsoft (NASDAQ) and Apple (NASDAQ) reporting. The report follows a mix of disappointing results from large banks and disappointed numbers from pandemic darlings, such as Netflix (NASDAQ).

According to Refinitiv’s IBES estimates, companies will see an increase in earnings of 23.7% annually.

IBM Premarket trading saw a 1.9% increase in (NYSE:). This was after Wall Street’s estimates of revenue and profit for the IT company beat them. Its focus on cloud computing paid off.

Insecurity has also been caused by the geopolitical tensions between Russia and West regarding Ukraine. According to U.S. Department of Defense about 8.500 American troops have been placed on alert.

U.S equities had a turbulent start to the week with the S&P 500 coming close to confirming a 10% correction on Monday.

At 6:53 AM. ET fell 265 points or 0.77%. ET was down 58 points or 1.32% and fell 269.25 points or 1.86%.

Microsoft’s quarterly results fell 0.9% after the markets closed, Wells Fargo The shares of Wall Street’s major lenders were among those that fell 1.1% (NYSE:).

Nike Inc (NYSE) gained 1.3% following Wells Fargo’s upgrade of the stock to “overweight” instead of “equalweight”.

Later in the day, investors will examine consumer confidence data to determine if economic health is improving following the Omicron-related resurgence.