Stock futures are mildly higher after Dow and S&P 500 close at records, big tech earnings on deck
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), September 22, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
U.S. stock futures were mildly higher in early morning trading on Tuesday as investors await a slew of major technology earnings with the broader market at a record high.
Dow futures rose just 37 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures also both traded in positive territory.
Shares of social media giant Facebook ticked more than 1% higher in after-hours trading on Monday after the company topped analysts’ earnings expectations. Facebook missed expectations for revenue and monthly active users.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed at record highs on Monday. The Dow gained 64 points. The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, helped by a 12% rally in Tesla’s stock as the electric carmaker hit a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time.
The Nasdaq Composite was the outperformer, rising 0.9%. The technology-focused average is about 1.1% from its record high.
Technology darlings Alphabet and Microsoft report earnings after the bell on Tuesday. Other key reports include 3M, Eli Lilly, General Electric, UPS and Visa. Microsoft bulls are expecting a strong quarter for Microsoft, bolstered by its key Azure business. Analysts are expecting Alphabet earnings to come in 43% higher year over year.
As of the close on Monday, 84% of the 117 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings beat expectations, according to Refinitiv. S&P 500 companies are expected to grow profit by about 35% in the third quarter.
“Earnings season is off to another great start, but now the big test is will the big tech names step up? With stocks at all-time highs, the bar is indeed quite high and tech will need to impress to help justify stocks at current levels,” said Ryan Detrick, chief financial strategist at LPL Financial.
Twitter, Hasbro, JetBlue, Lockheed Martin, Novartis, PulteGroup, Advanced Micro Devices, Chubb and Robinhood also report quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
New home sales will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting that home sales grew 760,000 in September, up from 740,000 in August.
