S&P 500 futures fell 6.2 points to 1,013.50 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 10.25 points to 1,614.70. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 58 points. "There are profits to be taken. The realization is just building that the scale and the duration of this recovery has been overestimated," said Philip Isherwood, a strategist at U.K.-based brokerage Evolution Securities. On Monday, U.S. stocks weakened to wrap up the best August since 2000, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 47 points, the Nasdaq Composite falling 19 points and the S&P 500 retreating 8 points. Jitters about China contributed to the drop. The Shanghai Composite, which slumped 6.7% on Monday, closed up 0.6% in erratic trade on Tuesday. But the U.K. provided the bad news on Tuesday, with a manufacturing gauge unexpectedly sliding back into contraction territory and a fall in consumer lending for the first time in at least 16 years. The FTSE 100 fell 1.2% in London and the pound dropped against the U.S. dollar. In the U.S., the Institute for Supply Manufacturing's August manufacturing report, due at 10 a.m. Eastern, is expected to show a rise to 50.5% from 48.9%, according to economists polled by MarketWatch. That would mark the first rise above the break-even 50 level since January 2008. Also to be released during the day will be U.S. monthly auto sales. Alec Gutierrez, a senior analyst at KBB.com, said he wouldn't be surprised to see the annualized sales rate soar as high as 15 million cars and trucks this month, a massive improvement from a low in February of 9.17 million. But the durability of this advance is in doubt as the cash-for-clunkers program has been wound down. On the corporate front, Internet auction giant eBay (EBAY 22.14, -0.32, -1.42%) will be in the spotlight on expectations it will announce a deal Tuesday to sell its Skype Internet telephony unit to a group of private investors, according to a report in the New York Times, which cited two people briefed on the company's plans. The newspaper said a price was not disclosed, but eBay has said it wants around $2 billion for Skype, which is set to make more than $600 million in revenue this year. PetroChina Co. (PTR 109.75, -3.44, -3.04%) and Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. have signed agreements allowing the Chinese energy giant to purchase a 60% working interest in two oil sands projects in Western Canada for 1.9 billion Canadian dollars ($1.7 billion). Oil futures moved back above the $70-a-barrel level, while yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds were steady at 3.40%.

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