US STOCKS-Wall St set to open flat as focus shifts to mixed earnings

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* Verizon rises as Q2 profit beats estimates
* Kellogg jumps on quarterly profit, sales beat
* Qualcomm slides on weak rev, profit forecast
* Futures: Dow up 0.05%, S&P 500 flat, Nasdaq up 0.08%

(Updates prices, adds background)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open flat on
Thursday, with focus shifting back to a mixed bag of corporate
earnings after a cautious message from the Federal Reserve on
interest rates drove some of the biggest falls since May in the
previous session.
The U.S. central bank reduced borrowing costs by a
widely-expected quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, but
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled a series of further cuts was
unlikely, leading to a sharp selloff on the S&P 500 and Dow.
Despite that, all three major indexes posted their second
straight monthly gains in July, closing the book on a month in
which the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq reached fresh record highs.
"It was always going to be a tough job for the Fed to be as
dovish as stock markets hoped. The 25 bps cut was a non-event,"
said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, in a note.
"With the Fed out of the way there is a chance that we can
all get back to focusing on earnings and how earnings season
continues to paint a broadly positive picture."
Almost three weeks through earnings, reports so far have
been strong. Of the 296 companies in the S&P 500 that have
reported second-quarter earnings, 74.7% have beaten Street
estimates for profit, according to Refinitiv data.
Shares of Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N rose 1.3% in
premarket trading after wireless carrier beat quarterly profit
estimates as it added far more net new phone subscribers who pay
a monthly bill than expected. At 8:38 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 13 points, or
0.05%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 remained unchanged and Nasdaq 100
e-minis NQcv1 were up 6.5 points, or 0.08%.
Kellogg Co K.N jumped 4.2% after the company beat
analysts' expectations for quarterly sales and profit, driven by
higher demand for its snacks, including Pringles and Pop-Tarts,
in North America. But not all reports were upbeat.
Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O plunged 6.7% after the chipmaker's
quarterly revenue and profit forecast fell short of Wall Street
targets.
Concho Resources Inc CXO.N slid 16% after the shale
producer missed second-quarter profit expectations and forecast
weak current-quarter output.
On the macro front, the Institute for Supply Management's
index of national factory activity, due at 10 a.m. EDT, will
likely show a reading of 52.0 in July from 51.7 in June.
This will follow IHS Markit Manufacturing Purchasing
Managers' Indexes final reading for the month July, due 9:45
a.m. EDT.
Factory activity contracted across Asia and Europe in July,
fuelling worries a prolonged U.S.-China trade war and an
economic slowdown could tilt the world towards recession, which
central banks would have to fight with depleted ammunition.