By Medha Singh
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures dipped on Tuesday as investors moved to the sidelines a day after Wall Street closed at all-time highs with focus squarely on earnings reports and progress in the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.
Big U.S. banks slipped in premarket trading after the banks index jumped about 11% in the past seven sessions. Heavyweight tech-focused companies Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp were also marginally down.
Upbeat corporate earnings so far along with monetary and fiscal support have powered the Dow and the S&P 500’s six-day run but analysts have cautioned against risks from the new coronavirus variants and any glitches in vaccine rollouts.
Last week’s data showing slower-than-expected growth in the labor market underscored the need for more government aid to blunt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The White House expects the House of Representatives to track closely to President Joe Biden’s relief plan as it marks up its latest round of legislation but expects lawmakers will tweak some elements.
Meanwhile, The United States reported a 25% drop in new cases of COVID-19 to about 825,000 last week, the biggest fall since the pandemic started, although health officials said they were worried new variants of the virus could slow or reverse this progress.
At 6:28 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 67 points, or 0.21% and S&P 500 E-minis were down 7.25 points, or 0.19%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 24.25 points, or 0.18%.
Toymaker Mattel Inc and telephone equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc marginally fell ahead of their earnings after market close.
A stronger-than expected fourth quarter earnings season so far has quelled fears of a pullback in equities owing to lofty valuations. Analysts see fourth-quarter S&P earnings to gain 2.4%, a stark reversal from the 10.3% annual decline seen at the beginning of the year, per Refinitiv.
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc fell nearly 4% after the videogame publisher posted a drop in quarterly adjusted sales and shied away from announcing any new big releases.
Glu Mobile Inc jumped about 33% on a $2.4 billion buyout offer from Electronic Arts Inc that would bolster EA’s mobile platform with the addition of games such as “Design Home”, “Covet Fashion”, and “MLB Tap Sports Baseball”.
Bitcoin fast approached the $50,000-mark as the afterglow of Elon Musk-led Tesla’s investment in the cryptocurrency had investors reckoning it may become a mainstream asset class for both corporations and money managers.
Cryptocurrency miner Riot Blockchain and Marathon Patent Group jumped 14% and 18%, respectively.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
