(Reuters) – Futures for Wall Street’s main indexes edged higher on Monday ahead of this week’s corporate earnings and economic data that could offer clues on the state of the U.S. economy, while tensions over Israel-Hamas conflict kept gains in check.
Israeli bombardments intensified ahead of a likely ground invasion, dashing hopes of a brief ceasefire in southern Gaza as residents of the Hamas-ruled region said the overnight strikes were the heaviest yet in nine days of conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, agreed to lift a blockade of water supplies after speaking with U.S. President Joe Biden, while a Middle East visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to prevent escalation lifted Treasury yields.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropped on Friday as deteriorating consumer sentiment data and the Middle East conflict kept investors away from riskier bets and overshadowed some upbeat earnings from big U.S. banks.
Results from large banks Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, electric automaker Tesla and video-streaming pioneer Netflix are due this week.
Charles Schwab is scheduled to report before the opening bell.
Third-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies, including energy, is estimated to grow 2.2% on an annual basis, LSEG data showed.
Of the 32 S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far, 87.5% of them have surpassed expectations compared to a long-term average of 66.5%.
Investors will look out for economic data including retail sales for September and the Philly Fed Business Index for October later this week, while the New York Fed’s Manufacturing for October will be watched before market open.
They will also keep an eye on Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, who is set to speak during the day and on remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday.
Harker said on Friday he believes the U.S. central bank is likely done with its rate-hiking cycle.
At 5:11 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 104 points, or 0.31%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 8.25 points, or 0.19%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.05%.
Among stocks, Nvidia fell 1.1% in premarket trading after Reuters reported U.S. will take steps to prevent American chipmakers from selling semiconductors to China in a bid to block more AI chip exports.
Pfizer lost 3.5% after slashing its full-year revenue forecast by 13% on Friday.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
