(Reuters) – U.S. Stock Index futures declined on Tuesday, following a series mediocre earnings reports. Meanwhile investors waited for a Federal Reserve rate hike to tame the surging stock market.

Pfizer Inc (NYSE) fell 0.7% in premarket trades as Inc kept to its annual sales projections for the COVID-19 vaccine, antiviral Pill Paxlovid.

Estee Lauder Cos Inc fell 9.5% following a cut of its full-year sales forecast by the cosmetics manufacturer due to new coronavirus restrictions in China, and the Ukraine crisis.

The U.S. central banks will begin its two-day policy conference later Tuesday. Traders are expecting a 93.9% probability of 50 basis point increases. The Fed Chair Jerome Powell is the focus of attention on Wednesday’s press conference. He will discuss future interest rate and balance sheet reduction plans.

It hovered above 3% on Monday after pushing past the psychological threshold for the first time since December 2018. [US/]

Wall Street was hit hard in April by uncertainty around Fed’s policy decision, mixed earnings from Big Tech companies and the Russia-Ukraine crises.

Tech-heavy Nasdaq fell nearly 13.3% last month. This was its worst performance since October 2008. Its decline came as high-growth stocks with rich valuations were put under increasing rates.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ.) dropped 0.9% Tuesday morning in premarket trading, leading to losses among megcap Growth stocks.

Vladimir Putin, Russian President has signed a decree prohibiting the export to the West of goods and raw material.

07:16 am. ET were down 130 points or 0.39% and down 16.5 points or 0.4% respectively. They were also down 53.25 point, or 0.41%.

Biogen Inc (NASDAQ) fell 3.0% following a report of a 26% drop in quarterly profits. The company also announced that Michel Vounatsos, its Chief Executive Officer, will be retiring.

DuPont de Nemours, NYSE:), fell 2.9% due to the reduction of its earnings and sales forecasts for fiscal year 2016. This was in response to higher logistic and raw material costs.