US pre-open: Futures point to early gains as indices attempt to bounce back from yesterday's losses
Wall Street futures had stocks opening higher ahead of the bell on Tuesday as major indices looked set to attempt to reclaim some of the ground lost in the previous session.
As of 1220 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.44%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.46% and 0.49% firmer, respectively.
The Dow Jones closed 650.19 points lower on Monday, registering its worst performance since early September after the US reported a daily record for new Covid-19 cases over the weekend.
A surge in new Covid-19 cases was still very much so at the forefront of investors' minds as stocks tried to bounce back from the previous session's heavy losses that came after the US reported a record average of 68,767 cases per day over the last week.
Fading hopes for a stimulus package were also in focus, with Nancy Pelosi's spokesman saying the House Speaker was still "optimistic" that her and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin could strike a deal before the election on 3 November.
SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said: "It is now only seven days until the US election – however, the Dow barely has time to consider the vote.
"Before it can start to think about the future of American democracy, it has to get through earnings updates from Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet, a Q3 GDP reading on Thursday, and, worst of all, a week's worth of Covid-19 headlines."
On the macro front, the monthly durable goods orders report will be released at 1230 GMT, while August's S&P/Case-Shiller house price index will be published at 1300 BST and both the Conference Board's October consumer confidence survey and the Richmond Federal Reserve's manufacturing index will follow at 1400 BST.
In corporate news, Harley-Davidson posted its best third-quarter net income in five years, while 3M earnings topped expectations thanks to a strong showing from its personal safety and home improvement products.
Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Raytheon were also slated to report before the opening bell, while Caterpillar, Chubb, Microsoft and Xerox earnings were expected later in the day.
AMD, which will also report earnings after the close, announced that it would snap up rival Xilinx in a $35.0bn all-stock deal.