Stock futures higher as focus shifts to earnings

[July 10, 2018]   By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday, as focus turned to the U.S. corporate earnings season that kicks off this week, while worries of a trade dispute took a back seat in the wake of encouraging economic data.

Wall Street has gained for three straight days as strong U.S. jobs data and mild inflation numbers helped overshadow an escalation in trade wars after China and the United States last week slapped tariffs on $34 billion worth of each other's goods.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 posted their biggest gains in more than a month on Monday.

PepsiCo reported quarterly revenue and profit that topped analysts' estimates on strong sales in the Frito-Lay unit. Its shares rose 1.9 percent in premarket trading.

Overall, S&P 500 companies are expected to post second-quarter profit growth of around 21 percent, slightly higher than what was forecast in April, according to Thomson Reuters data.

However, investors and analysts are expected to focus on the impact of trade tensions on corporate profits this earnings season, as companies lay out their strategies to tackle such threats.

China's tariffs are expected to hurt automakers, industrial companies as well as soybean and other agricultural products producers.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

On Tuesday, China's commerce ministry raised "anti-dumping tariff rates" for some U.S.-made optical fiber products, effective July 11.

At 7:03 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 40 points, or 0.16 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or 0.13 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 17 points, or 0.23 percent.

The sentiment also got a boot from a rise in oil prices, which gained more than $1 per barrel on Tuesday due to growing global supply outages.

Walgreens Boots Alliance dropped 0.7 percent after Evercore ISI cut its rating on the stock to "in line" from "outperform."

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.