Wall Street pointed toward losses early Tuesday as corporate earnings roll in and worries about war in the Middle East hang over markets.
Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow industrials slipped 0.2% before the bell.
In addition to another heavy slate of quarterly earnings, the U.S. will release retail sales numbers from September. Consumer spending has been a driving force in the U.S. economy though there have been signs that Americans may be pulling back on non-essential purchases.
Shares of Bank of America are up after it reported a 10% rise in third quarter profits Tuesday, helped by higher interest rates. Bank executives warned that after burning through pandemic savings, Americans are turning more heavily to credit cards — at those elevated interest rates — to manage their expenses, weighing on their spending.
Despite rising costs, there are still big deals being pursued.
Choice Hotels International is asking shareholders of rival chain Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to sign off on a buyout worth nearly $8 billion after Wyndham broke off negotiations, the company said Tuesday. The offer is being made after and extended surge in travel.
Markets also await China’s latest economic growth figures, due Wednesday. Economists are forecasting that annual growth dropped below 5% in July-September from 6.3% in the previous quarter.
A weaker Chinese economy is a drag on regional and global trade and manufacturing, slowing the global recovery from the pandemic.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.2% to 32,040.29 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.8% to 17,773.34.
The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% to 3,083.50. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to 7,056.10. India's Sensex advanced 0.4% and the SET in Thailand rose 0.4%.
In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX fell 0.4%, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.2% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2%.
Markets appeared to have recovered from the shocks following the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, even as Israel was preparing for a likely ground offensive into Gaza. and fears deepened that the conflict could spread along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
On Monday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 1.1% for its best day since the attack. The Dow rose 0.9% and the Nasdaq composite added 1.2%.
“The risk-off tone that permeated markets a few days ago seems to be dissipating thanks to a lot of shuttle diplomacy by (U.S. Secretary of State Antony) Blinken and others in the region,” Robert Carnell and Nicholas Mapa of ING Economics said in a commentary. “However, all of this is before Israel mounts its ground offensive in Gaza, and that could turn sentiment rapidly sour again.”
Oil prices have fallen back after a volatile week spurred by worries about disruptions to supplies from Iran because of the war.
Early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 25 cents at $86.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday it fell $1.03 to settle at $86.66. It has been bouncing up and down since barreling from $70 during the summer to more than $90 late last month.
Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 36 cents to $90.01 per barrel. It fell $1.24 on Monday to $89.65 per barrel.
Treasury yields have jumped after tumbling last week on worries that fighting in Gaza will escalate. Early Tuesday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.76%, up from 4.71% on Monday and from 4.62% late Friday.
More than 50 companies in the S&P 500 will report their earnings for the summer this week, including several major airlines, Johnson & Johnson and Tesla, and investors are hoping for a better reporting season for corporate profits.
A remarkably resilient U.S. economy has continued to power along, despite much higher interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to undercut inflation. FactSet estimates that earnings per share at S&P 500 companies likely rose 0.4% in the last quarter from a year earlier.
In currency trading Tuesday, the U.S. dollar fell to 149.43 Japanese yen from 149.51 yen. The euro rose to $1.0579 from $1.0561.
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