Wall Street futures gain as deadline for fresh stimulus looms

FAN Editor
FILE PHOTO: A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange, in New York City
FILE PHOTO: A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 2, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

October 20, 2020

By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan

(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes were set to open higher on Tuesday as investors were hopeful of more stimulus from Washington with Senate Republicans preparing to vote on a bill to help small businesses hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will also talk again on Tuesday, after a 53-minute telephone conversation on Monday “continued to narrow their differences” about the coronavirus aid package, a Pelosi spokesman said on Twitter.

“The stimulus package seems to be the major fixation for investors right now — the idea of Republicans and Democrats agreeing on the next payments going forward,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.

Uncertainty over the fiscal stimulus weighed on Wall Street’s main indexes on Monday, with analysts expecting market turbulence to increase with only two weeks left until Election Day.

Latest national opinion polls pointed to a victory for Democratic challenger Joe Biden, which would mean a cooling in global trade friction, but higher taxes for corporate America.

Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings season has gathered momentum. Of the 50 S&P 500 companies that have reported results, 86% have topped expectations for earnings, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos Inc <TRV.N> gained 3.2% premarket as it beat quarterly profit expectations, while consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co <PG.N> advanced 1.5% as it raised its full-year sales forecast.

At 08:15 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis <1YMcv1> were up 0.4% at 28,200 points and S&P 500 E-minis <EScv1> rose 0.39% to 3,436 points. Nasdaq 100 E-minis <NQcv1> gained 0.23% to 11,676 points.

Netflix Inc <NFLX.O> edged up 0.2% as investors awaited the stay-at-home winner’s membership additions in the third quarter.

International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> edged past estimates for quarterly revenue, bolstered by higher demand for its cloud services. The company’s shares, however, fell 3.3% after it stayed away from issuing a current-quarter forecast, citing economic uncertainty related to the pandemic.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

With coronavirus concerns a factor, it's all tied up in North Carolina: Poll

Coronavirus concerns lift former Vice President Joe Biden in North Carolina while the state’s sizable evangelical and rural populations pull for President Donald Trump, producing a dead-heat contest in a state that’s backed Democratic presidential candidates just twice in the last half century. Biden has 49% support among likely voters […]