U.S. stock futures point to a higher open after the broad S&P 500 eked out a fifth consecutive winning session on Monday ahead of a full week of corporate earnings and some key economic reports.
President Donald Trump is also be on the cusp of easing automotive tariffs, according to the Wall Street Journal, which could lift sentiment.
At 5:45 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow rose 0.28%, the S&P 500 gained 0.19% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.20%.
About 180 companies in the S&P 500 will report quarterly earnings this week, and investors will closely monitor how Trump’s tariffs could affect future profits and consumer spending. Importantly, four of the so-called Magnificent Seven, which are among the largest and most influential companies in the U.S. stock market, are among them. They are Amazon, Apple, Facebook parent Meta and Microsoft. Apple, especially, will get a hard look because of its heavy reliance on China.
“It’s fair to say that these Mag-7 earnings will go a long way to dictating the tone of the week,” Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank’s global head of macro and thematic research, wrote in a note on Monday.
Other major companies like Coca-Cola, Visa, Pfizer, Starbucks, Chevron, McDonald’s, Eli Lilly and General Motors will report earnings this week, too.
Aside from corporate earnings, investors are focused on trade news.
Trump is expected to soften the impact of his automotive tariffs by preventing duties on foreign-made cars from stacking on top of other tariffs he has imposed and easing some levies on foreign parts used to manufacture cars in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
That would mean automakers paying Trump’s automotive tariffs won’t also be charged for other duties, such as those on steel and aluminum, sources reportedly said. The move would be retroactive, the people said, meaning that automakers could be reimbursed for such tariffs already paid, the WSJ story said.
Such a move would be seen as a positive sign for inflation and the economy, analysts said.
Investors will also get a couple of key economic reports to mull. On Wednesday, the gross domestic product (GDP) for the first three months of the year along with the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge will be released before the market opens.
“If first-quarter GDP meets the consensus forecast of 0.3% growth, it will be the softest quarter since second-quarter 2022,” said Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading. “At this point, second-quarter should be more challenging.”