(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Futures: Dow flat, S&P up 0.07%, Nasdaq adds 0.14%
By Shivani Kumaresan
April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on
Wednesday ahead of quarterly earnings reports from JPMorgan and
Goldman Sachs, with investors expecting a strong rebound for
corporate America against the backdrop of a swift vaccine-led
global economic recovery.
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N is expected to kick off the
first-quarter earnings season for big banks at 6:45 a.m ET,
followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N and Wells Fargo & Co
WFC.N later in the morning.
Analysts expect overall net income for U.S. banks to jump
between 60% and 250% from a year earlier, partly as they release
a chunk of "reserves" – money they had set aside last year for
expected pandemic loan losses. First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated
to have risen 25% in the quarter, according to Refinitiv IBES
data. That would be the biggest quarterly gain since 2018, when
tax cuts under former President Donald Trump had powered profit
growth.
Shares of Goldman Sachs were up 0.7% in premarket trading,
while those of JPMorgan and Wells Fargo were flat.
At 6:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were flat, S&P 500
e-minis EScv1 were up 3 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100
e-minis NQcv1 were up 19.75 points, or 0.14%.
The S&P 500 closed at record highs in the previous session
as a jump in high-flying technology stocks helped offset the
impact of stronger-than-expected inflation data and a pause in
the use of Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N COVID-19 vaccine.
Technology stocks including Apple Inc AAPL.O , Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O edged
higher in early premarket deals.
Discovery Inc DISCA.O fell 3.9% as CNBC reported on
Tuesday that Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.S was still unloading
its positions in the media company after losses relating to
Archegos Capital Management.