US stock futures steady ahead of deluge of quarterly earnings

U.S. stock index futures steadied Tuesday, consolidating after a rally in technology shares spurred record highs on Wall Street during the previous session, ahead of some key corporate earnings. 

At 06:30 ET (10:30 GMT), Dow Jones Futures rose 35 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded largely unchanged, while Nasdaq 100 Futures slipped 17 points, or 0.1%. 

The major indices posted solid gains on Monday, helped by strong gains in the major technology stocks, with market darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) surging to a record high, moving closer to replacing iPhone-maker Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL ) as the world's most valuable company. 

The S&P 500 rose 0.8% to a record high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to a record high above  43,000 points, while the NASDAQ Composite climbed 0.9%, back in sight of peaks hit earlier this year. 

In addition to tech gains, stock markets were also buoyed by persistent bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in November.  Focus on Q3 earnings 

Investor focus was now squarely on the third-quarter earnings season, which is set to pick up in earnest on Tuesday. 

Financial majors Bank of America (NYSE:BAC ), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS ), Citigroup (NYSE:C ), and Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW ) are set to report on Tuesday, as are Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ ), United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL ), Unitedhealth (NYSE:UNH ) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA ). 

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS ) rounds off the bank earnings on Wednesday, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX ), Blackstone (NYSE:BX ) and American Express (NYSE:AXP ) will report in the remainder of the week.

Investors will be watching whether corporate earnings persevered despite pressure from high interest rates and sticky inflation. 

Along with the earnings, focus this week is also on retail sales data, as well as addresses from a string of Fed officials, for more cues on the economy and interest rates.  Crude slumps on demand fears 

Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday, adding to recent losses on growing concerns over a slowdown in demand growth, particularly from top exporter China.

By 06:30 ET, the Brent contract dropped 4.8% to $73.79 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures (WTI) traded 4.9% lower at $70.19 a barrel.

Both benchmarks had settled about 2% lower on Monday, and have continued to retreat after China logged a fifth straight monthly decline in oil imports, spurring fears of weak demand.

These fears were exacerbated by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cutting its oil demand outlook for a third consecutive month.

Oil prices were also dented by traders pricing out a risk premium after a report on Monday said Israel will not attack Iran’s oil and nuclear facilities. Such a strike would have marked a major escalation in the conflict, and had investors concerned about a disruption to supply from this oil-rich region.   (Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)

Source: Investing.com