U.S. stock index futures rose slightly ahead of Thursday’s open, pointing to a rebound after the previous day’s tumble wiped out the Dow’s gains for the year and pushed the Nasdaq into correction territory.
At around 3:50 a.m. ET, Dow futures ticked up 100 points, indicating a positive open of 149 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures also pointed to a slight rebound for the day.
A sharp pullback in tech shares and weaker corporate earnings have driven what has been a bruising month for stocks.
Wednesday saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average drop 608.01 points at 24,583.42, erasing all of its gains for 2018. The S&P 500 dropped 3.1 percent to 2,656.10 and also turned negative for the year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 4.4 percent to 7,108.40— entering correction territory — as Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all traded lower.
Investors on Thursday will be looking to earnings in what will be the biggest U.S. earnings day of the season, with at least 66 S&P 500 companies and two Dow components reporting.
Among the major companies publishing their latest financial earnings are Alphabet, Amazon, Twitter, A-B InBev, Comcast, Merck, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Snap.
Elsewhere in the economic space, jobless claims are due out at 8:30 a.m. ET, along with durable goods and later pending home sales at 10 a.m. ET. The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index is also due at 11 a.m. ET.
Sentiment over earnings will help determine whether this month’s pullback will continue — so far in October the Dow has dropped 7.1 percent, while the S&P 500 has pulled back 8.9 percent. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, has tumbled 11.7 percent.
Several factors have conspired to knock markets this month — some earnings disappointment, a brewing conflict betweenItaly and theEuropean Union over budget spending, criticism of oil powerSaudi Arabia after the killing of a dissident journalist and finally, worries that world growth is losing steam.
—CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
