US pre-open: Futures in the red as tech earnings continue to roll in

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Wednesday as weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings from Alphabet and Microsoft weighed on sentiment.

As of 1225 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.06%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.68% and 1.72% softer, respectively.

The Dow closed 337.12 points higher on Tuesday as investors thumbed through data and earnings from some of the nation's biggest tech firms.

Google parent company Alphabet traded lower in pre-market after the giant fell short of expectations on both the top and bottom lines and posted a decline in YouTube advertising revenue, while Microsoft delivered cloud revenue that failed to meet consensus, despite beating both earnings and revenue estimates, and also provided current-quarter revenue guidance that fell short of expectations.

Turning to Wednesday's earnings slate, Facebook parent Meta Platforms, Boeing and Kraft Heinz will all release their latest sets of quarterly figures throughout the course of the day.

On the macro front, mortgage applications fell 1.70% week-on-week in the seven days ended 21 October, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, marking a fifth consecutive drop amid continued increases in borrowing costs.

Still to come, September building permits data will be published at 1300 BST, while an advance reading of September's goods trade balance and last month's new home sales figures will follow at 1330 BST and 1500 BST, respectively.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com