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U.S. stock-index futures pointed higher Tuesday, with the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite on track to build on records, as investors sifted through a torrent of corporate earnings reports and prepared for results from technology heavyweights.
What are major benchmarks doing?
-
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
YM00,
+0.00%
rose 27 points, or 0.1%, to 33,904. -
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
+0.08%
were up 5.10 points, or 0.1%, at 4,184.50. -
Nasdaq-100 futures
NQ00,
+0.08%
gained 20 points, or 0.1%, to trade at 14,031.50.
On Monday, stocks ended mostly higher, with tech-related shares leading the move to the upside. The S&P 500
SPX,
rose 0.2% and eclipsed its previous closing high from April 16 and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
jumped 0.9% to take it out its record finish from Feb. 12. The Dow
DJIA,
stumbled, falling 0.2%.
What’s driving the market?
Corporate results for the first quarter were in the spotlight as one of the busiest weeks of the earnings reporting season got under way, with electric car maker Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
delivering its report late Monday afternoon. Tech results will be in the spotlight, with earnings for Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
and Google parent Alphabet Inc.
GOOG,
GOOGL,
due after the closing bell Tuesday.
With about a third of S&P 500 index companies reporting so far, about 80% have beaten forecasts, according to FactSet.
“The biggest threat to the positive trend in technology stocks is the reflation trade, which would boost demand for cyclical stocks and move capital from the tech stocks towards the value names,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote.
“But it looks like that migration from growth to value is happening without too much harm for the tech stocks for now, and some digital services, including the cloud business will unlikely be affected by the reflation theme as the end of the pandemic won’t reverse the migration of our data storage to the clouds,” she said, in a note.
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday will kick off a two-day policy meeting at which Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to maintain his stance that interest rates won’t begin to rise until inflation exceeds the Fed’s 2% target.
Read: Why the Fed’s focus on those hardest-hit by the pandemic matters for markets
The U.S. economic calendar features the Case-Shiller home price index for February at 9 a.m. Eastern.
A consumer-confidence index reading from the Conference Board for April is due at 10 a.m.
Which companies are in focus?
- Tesla shares were down more than 2% in premarket action after the Silicon Valley electric-car maker reported first-quarter profit above expectations, but saw sales miss the mark slightly.
-
Shares of Lyft Inc.
LYFT,
-1.00%
were up 1.8% after the ride-hailing company late Monday said it would sell its autonomous-vehicle division to a Toyota
TM,
-0.94%
subsidiary for $550 million in cash, calling the move a way to speed up the development of self-driving technology. -
Shares of meme favorite GameStop Corp.
GME,
+11.74%
rose more than 7% in premarket action after the videogame retailer announced after the closing bell that it had completed its “at-the-market” stock offering by selling 3.5 million additional shares for approximately $551 million. -
Shares of drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co.
LLY,
-0.79%
were down more than 5% after it posted weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings and provided guidance that was below consensus. -
United Parcel Service Inc.
UPS,
-1.76%
shares rose after the package delivery giant reported first-quarter profit and revenue that were well above expectations. -
Shares of 3M Co.
MMM,
-1.27%
rose 1.5% after the conglomerate reported first-quarter earnings and revenue that beat forecasts and affirmed its full-year outlook. -
General Electric Co.
GE,
+0.15%
shares rose after the industrial conglomerate swung to a first-quarter loss, but reported adjusted profit that topped expectations while revenue fell short of expectations. -
Hasbro Inc.
HAS,
-0.13%
shares rose 2% after the toy maker reported earnings that topped forecasts, while revenues fell short.
