US pre-open: Futures mixed as Q3 earnings season kicks off
Wall Street futures were pointing to mixed open ahead of the bell on Tuesday as market participants awaited some key corporate earnings and digested news of a pause in Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine study.
As of 1220 BST, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were down 0.41% and 0.12%, respectively, while Nasdaq-100 futures had the index coming out the gate 0.93% stronger.
The Dow Jones closed 250.62 points higher on Monday as stimulus talks remained in focus for yet another session.
Third-quarter earnings season will begin on Tuesday, with results from the likes of Johnson & Johnson, Blackrock, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Delta Air Lines set to be published throughout the course of the day.
Also in focus, ahead of its earnings, Johnson & Johnson revealed that it had paused its Covid-19 vaccine study after one of the trial's participants had come down with an "unexplained illness". The pharma giant did not make it immediately clear if the patient had been administered with a placebo or the experimental vaccine itself.
SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said: "Though a pause in a trial – this time due to 'an unexplained illness in a study participant' – isn't exactly out of the ordinary, it still dealt a blow to the market's faint, naïve hopes of a vaccine arriving this side of Christmas.
"As for the Dow Jones, after rising 250 points last night it is head for a 70 points drop this afternoon. The index now has two hopes regarding stimulus: either a bipartisan agreement is reached on a package, or Joe Biden sweeps the vote and pushes through a larger bill. The less likely the former looks, the more important election polling could become in the next few weeks."
Elsewhere in the corporate space, Amazon was in focus as its "Prime Day" event kicked off, while investors also had a keen eye trained on Apple ahead of an event later in the day where the tech behemoth was rumoured to be announcing its first 5G-enabled iPhone handset.
On the macro front, inflation rate data will be released at 1330 BST.