Wall Street Futures Rise as AI Stocks Catch Their Breath: Dow Futures Up 270, and Apple Reports After the Bell
After a $2.5 trillion October for the Nasdaq-100, Monday opens steadier - with the midterms, an ISM print and the biggest earnings night of the season all ahead.
US stock index futures were higher on Monday as technology and AI-related stocks steadied after a dismal October, Reuters reported, with investors turning to the midterm elections and another busy week of earnings. At 5:15 a.m. Eastern, Dow E-minis were up 270 points, or 0.52 percent, S&P 500 E-minis were up 39.75 points, or 0.52 percent, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 253.5 points, or 0.89 percent. Risk sentiment also got a lift from oil prices falling more than 4 percent, as talks between Iranian and Qatari officials on a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran raised hopes that Middle East supply disruptions could ease, Reuters reported.
The steadiness follows a brutal month. The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 shed over $2.5 trillion in market value in October and was on the brink of entering correction territory, as investors grew wary of Big Tech's soaring AI spending while awaiting evidence of stronger returns, Reuters reported. Intel inched 0.2 percent higher Monday after clocking its worst one-day fall since the 1980s on Friday; the chipmaker forecast quarterly revenue below market estimates and said it does not expect positive cash flow this year. Okta gained 3.6 percent after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the identity management firm will join the S&P 500, replacing Kenvue.
Monday's main event comes after the bell. Apple eased 0.4 percent ahead of its quarterly earnings, and analysts expect the company to report a nearly 11 percent rise in revenue to $113 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, with net profit up about 6 percent to $29 billion and iPhone sales projected to climb about 15 percent to $56.5 billion, Reuters' Morning Bid reported. Palantir also reports Monday, the October ISM manufacturing PMI lands at 10 a.m. Eastern, and AMD reports later this week, with Estee Lauder and Marriott reporting before Monday's bell. Over it all sits Tuesday's vote: 'Midterm elections tend to be unfavourable events for the party in power and a Democratic victory in the House of Representatives would return the US to divided government, which would hardly be unusual,' Janus Henderson's Seth Meyer told Reuters. 'In short, gridlock may be good, and it certainly isn't unusual.'
