US stock futures little changed ahead of open
NEW YORK — U.S. stock futures are little changed Tuesday, a day after major indexes reached their highest levels in a year.
Investors are bracing for the latest stream of earnings reports with Johnson & Johnson the first among a number of key companies this week to issue results.
The health care and consumer products company said its third-quarter profit inched up 1 percent, narrowly beating expectations. Revenue slipped 5 percent, missing analyst estimates.
Later Tuesday, investors will also get reports from tech giant Intel Corp. and railroad operator CSX Corp.
Overseas, European stocks were narrowly mixed, while Asian stocks rose moderately.
The dollar fell further against other major currencies, sending commodity prices higher. The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against other major currencies, dropped to a 14-month low. Gold subsequently hit a record high $1,069.70 an ounce, while oil prices added $1 to $74.27 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Bond prices also rose, recovering from steep losses last week.
Investors around the globe sent stocks higher on Monday on hopes that third-quarter earnings reports, which begin in earnest this week, will exceed expectations and validate the market’s growing belief that the economy is on the mend.
Ahead of the market’s open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 7, or 0.1 percent, to 9,826. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 0.60, or 0.1 percent, to 1,072.10, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 2.25, or 0.1 percent, to 1,730.
Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.04 percent, while Germany’s DAX index fell 0.3 percent and France’s CAC-40 slipped 0.2 percent in afternoon trading. Earlier Tuesday, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.6 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.8 percent.
In other trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.33 percent from 3.38 percent late Friday. Bond markets were closed Monday in observance of the Columbus Day holiday.
Johnson & Johnson shares fell 98 cents to $61.55 in pre-market trading after its earnings report.
The Dow Jones industrial average moved as high as 9,931 on Monday, just 69 points away from 10,000, a level not seen in a year. It was the third straight day of gains for the index. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which has risen over the past six sessions, also finished at its highest level in a year.
The gains have been driven in large part by expectations for upbeat earnings reports, stoked by solid profits at companies like Alcoa Inc. and Royal Philips Electronics.
Investors want to see signs that businesses and consumers are picking up their spending and that companies have been able to drive higher profits through revenue growth, not just through deep cost cuts, which helped boost income in the second quarter.
Also on tap this week are reports from a number of the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., which reports on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. report results on Thursday, while Bank of America Corp. is scheduled to issue its report on Friday.
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