LDN - Business

Stock futures rise on upbeat results from UnitedHealth, Morgan Stanley

[October 16, 2018] By Medha Singh

(Reuters) - U.S. stock futures signaled a slight recovery on Tuesday, as upbeat earnings reports from Morgan Stanley and UnitedHealth among others helped ease jitters over the impact of various global issues on corporate profits.

Shares of Morgan Stanley <MS.N> rose 2.1 percent premarket after reporting a 19 percent increase in quarterly profit, with strong performance in its equities trading business outweighing weakness in bond trading.

Goldman Sachs <GS.N>, which will release results shortly to wrap up earnings from the top six U.S. banks, was up 0.7 percent.

UnitedHealth <UNH.N> rose 2 percent in light premarket volumes after the insurer delivered a quarterly profit beat and boosted earnings forecast for the year as it added more members to its health plans.

In what could be a lift for the recently turbulent technology sector, Adobe <ADBE.O> climbed 5.5 percent after the software company reaffirmed its current-quarter forecast and provided 2019 targets that eased concerns over the impact of a recent acquisition.

One dampener was Walmart <WMT.N>, which dropped 0.7 percent after lowering its earnings forecast for the year to include the impact from its acquisition of Indian e-commerce company Flipkart.

The reports from some of the biggest U.S. companies would help soothe nerves of investors who have been fretting over the impact of tariffs, rising interest rates, wage growth and other factors on corporate profits.

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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Still, earnings at S&P 500 companies is expected to have risen 21.6 percent in the third quarter, a slowdown from the past two quarters, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.

At 7:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 119 points, or 0.47 percent. S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 12.25 points, or 0.45 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 47 points, or 0.66 percent.

Johnson & Johnson <JNJ.N> edged 0.5 percent higher after beating quarterly estimates and raising its forecast, as demand for cancer drugs Zytiga and Darzalex helped offset falling sales of blockbuster arthritis drug Remicade.

Netflix <NFLX.O> was 0.8 percent ahead of its earnings report, expected after market close. The video streaming company will be the first to issues results among the FAANG group of stocks, which have at the center of last week's selloff.

At 9:15 a.m. ET/1:15 p.m. GMT, industrial production data from the Federal Reserve is likely to show production rose 0.2 percent in September, lower than its August reading of 0.4 percent rise.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru)

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