(Reuters) – Futures tied to Wall Street’s main indexes edged up on Thursday ahead of a wave of corporate earnings, while a seeming lull in the escalation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs gave markets some reprieve.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly, industrial conglomerate Honeywell International and luxury apparel brand Ralph Lauren are among the prominent companies scheduled to report results before the bell.
Amazon.com, which is set to report after markets close, is under pressure to deliver on lofty cloud computing expectations.
At 04:58 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 89 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 12.25 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 34.25 points, or 0.16%.
Most megacap and growth stocks edged up, with Nvidia adding about 1% in premarket trading.
Markets witnessed a dismal start to the week when Trump announced sweeping trade tariffs over the weekend, but suspended the levies on goods from Mexico and Canada on Monday for a month.
Although many uncertainties remain under Trump’s new administration, Wall Street was relieved for the most part that things were not worse, particularly with regard to counter-tariffs against the United States from Beijing. [MKTS/GLOB]
“Markets may have breathed a temporary sigh of relief as US tariffs against Canada and Mexico are put on hold for now, and China’s initial retaliatory response is considered restrained,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said overnight that he was content to keep the central bank’s policy rate steady until policymakers had a better sense of the net effects of the Trump administration’s policies on tariffs, immigration, deregulation and taxes.
Traders do not expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to make a move on interest rates in its next meeting in March, with a cut widely anticipated in June, according to the CME’s FedWatch.
Analysts have broadly estimated that Trump’s tariff plans could spur domestic inflation and would likely slow the Fed’s rate cuts.
A weekly jobless claims report is due before markets open, leading up to the all-important January nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
All three major indexes closed higher in a choppy session on Wednesday, bringing the S&P 500 about 1% away from its all-time highest level.
Among early movers, U.S.-listed shares of Arm Holdings dropped 4% after the chip-tech provider slightly topped current-quarter expectations, but said it would no longer meet the top end of its previous full-year forecast.
Qualcomm fell 4.8% after the chip designer’s executives said its lucrative patent-licensing business would not see sales growth this year, following the expiration of an agreement with Huawei Technologies.
Ford Motor lost 4.9% after the automaker forecast up to $5.5 billion in losses in its electric-vehicle and software operations this year.
Skyworks Solutions plunged 29.1% after the Apple supplier forecast declines in revenue in its mobile segment and projected current-quarter profits below estimates.
(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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