Jimo Zhong and Matt Ott, Associated Press
21 minutes ago
FILE – The “Fearless Girl” statue stands in front of the New York Stock Exchange on March 19, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Muñoz Alvarez, File)
Wall Street pointed to modest gains early Tuesday as the market prepares to digest another round of heavy corporate earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.1% before the opening bell, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.
General Motors rose 4.5% after the company said first-quarter net income rose more than 25% on strong deliveries of pickup trucks and other high-margin vehicles. Despite a slight decline in U.S. auto sales, GM handily beat Wall Street’s profit expectations and raised its full-year profit outlook.
Despite beating analysts’ sales and profit targets, PepsiCo shares were flat before the market opened. PepsiCo reported better-than-expected earnings in the first quarter due to strong international demand for its snacks and beverages.
JetBlue shares fell more than 10% after the airline posted another decline in sales and cut its earnings outlook for this year.
Tesla, the electric car maker whose stock has fallen 43% this year, will report first-quarter results after the bell on Tuesday. The carmaker owned by Elon Musk has lowered the prices of its cars several times this year, citing weak demand.
This week, about one-third of S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report earnings for the first three months of the year. That includes companies that have surpassed Tesla and Alphabet and become known as members of the Magnificent Seven.
Companies as a whole are under even more pressure than usual to achieve greater profits and revenues. This is because interest rates, another major factor determining stock prices, are unlikely to be of much use in the short term.
Federal Reserve officials warned last week that it may be necessary to keep interest rates high for some time to ensure inflation falls to its 2% target. This was a huge disappointment for financial markets, ruining hopes that had been building since the Fed earlier indicated there could be three rate cuts this year.
After inflation cooled sharply last year, interest rate cuts appeared to be on the horizon. But a series of reports showing that inflation has remained higher than expected this year have raised concerns that progress could stall.
In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.5% to a record high of 8,061.61 early Tuesday, surpassing its previous high set in February 2023. By midday, the FTSE had retreated slightly but was still up 0.2% to 8,036.02.
Germany’s DAX rose 1% and Paris’ CAC40 rose 0.5%.
In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 37,552 yen, even as Japan’s manufacturing activity contracted for the 11th straight month and is close to breaking even in April. It became 16 sen.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 1.9% to 16,820.51, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7% to 3,021.98.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.5% to 7,683.50. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% to 2,623.02.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 61 cents to $81.29 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard crude, fell 57 cents to $86.43 per barrel.
The dollar fell from 154.84 yen to 154.79 yen. The euro rose to $1.0676 from $1.0653.
On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5%, recovering more than a quarter of last week’s selloff. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.1%.
