Wall St set to open higher after steep selloff, IBM gains on strong results
(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open higher on Tuesday, as economically sensitive stocks rebounded following a sharp selloff in the previous session, while shares of IBM jumped on strong second-quarter results.
Shares of International Business Machines Corp gained 3.3% in premarket trading as brokerages raised their price targets on the stock following robust growth in the company’s cloud and consulting businesses.
Focus is now on earnings reports from companies including Netflix Inc and Chipotle Mexican Grill later in the day.
The second-quarter reporting season is underway, with 41 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 90% have beaten consensus estimates, Refinitiv data showed.
Analysts now see year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 72% for the April to June period, according to Refinitiv.
Wall Street’s main indexes ended sharply lower on Monday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones index logging its worst day in nearly nine months as a surge in Delta variant infections sparked a broad sell-off on fears about renewed COVID-19 shutdowns and a protracted economic recovery.
“We have been in a straight line, almost straight up, and the market needs to shake it off once in a while. It (Delta variant) was an excuse to accelerate some selling yesterday,” said Anthony Minopoli, chief investment officer at Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors.
“We’re looking at the Delta variant as a short-term situation but really more focused on what’s happening with employment, inflation and keeping an eye on if there’s any change in tone coming from the Fed.”
Energy stocks Chevron Corp, Schlumberger NV, Occidental Petroleum Corp, ONEOK Inc, Phillips 66 and Halliburton Co rose between 1.0% and 2.7%, as oil prices edged higher after the previous session’s 7% drop. [O/R]
Rate-sensitive lenders Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley were up between 0.6% and 1.0%. [US/]
At 8:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 208 points, or 0.61%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 21 points, or 0.49%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 57.5 points, or 0.4%.
Shares of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related firms Coinbase Global, Riot Blockchain, Marathon Patent Group and MicroStrategy Inc fell between 1.4% and 2.4% as bitcoin slipped below $30,000.
Halliburton Co rose 2.7% after it posted a second-straight quarterly profit, as a rebound in crude prices from pandemic lows buoyed demand for oilfield services.
Travelers Cos Inc gained 0.8% after the property and casualty insurer beat second-quarter profit expectations, helped by higher premiums, lower catastrophe losses and a surge in returns from investments.
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