Futures rise heading into Fed meet, more earnings awaited

[October 31, 2023]  By Amruta Khandekar and Shashwat Chauhan

(Reuters) -Futures for Wall Street's main stock indexes rose on Tuesday in the run-up to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting that will shape expectations for its interest rate path, while investors eyed more earnings to gauge how corporate America is faring.

Wall Street's main indexes rallied more than 1% in the previous session, rebounding from a selloff in the past few weeks that was sparked by surging Treasury yields and the Middle East conflict.

"Our market view remains that we could see positive performance from all three asset classes in November," Mohit Kumar, chief economist Europe at Jefferies, said. "However, we are conscious of geopolitical uncertainty and hence are keeping risk positions short and nimble."

U.S. equities are tracking their third straight month in the red, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq on course for their worst October since 2018.

At 7:01 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 120 points, or 0.36%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 9.25 points, or 0.22%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 4.75 points, or 0.03%.

Heavy machinery maker Caterpillar reported a rise in third-quarter profit. Its share were last down 2.7% in premarket trading.

The quarterly earnings season has crossed the halfway mark, with 77.7% of the 251 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far surpassing analysts' estimates, according to LSEG data.

The Fed is set to kick off a two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday, at the end of which it is widely expected to hold interest rates steady, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Commentary at the end of the meeting on Wednesday would be crucial in assessing how long monetary policy could stay restrictive amid recent signs of economic strength.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 20, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Along with earnings, a slew of labor market data throughout the week will also be in focus, culminating in Friday's non-farm payrolls report, for further clues on the strength of the U.S. economy.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields slid on Tuesday, with the yield on the 10-year note last at 4.82%, a day after the Treasury Department said it expects to borrow $76 billion less this quarter than previously anticipated.

Across the world, the Bank of Japan tweaked its bond yield control policy again on Tuesday, further loosening its grip on long-term interest rates.

Pinterest jumped 17.6% premarket as the image sharing platform beat third-quarter revenue and profit estimates on a stabilizing digital advertising market.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies such as JD.Com, Alibaba, PDD Holdings and Bilibili shed between 1.3% and 1.7% after data showed China's manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in October.

VF Corp dropped 7.7% on withdrawing its annual forecast, while Arista Networks gained 9.9% on an upbeat fourth-quarter revenue forecast.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Shounak Dasgupta)

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