Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Thursday as investors prepared to digest a slew of corporate earnings along with some key economic reports to gauge the march of the U.S. economy.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 22 points, or 0.12%, by 6:57AM ET (10:577GMT), the S&P 500 futures advanced 4 points, or 0.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 8 points, or 0.16%.
As the third quarter earnings season nears the halfway mark, the 213 S&P companies having reported so far have shown aggregate earnings-per-share growth of 7.4% compared to the year ago period. That was up from 6.3% in the second quarter, according to The Earnings Scout.
These experts also point out that 75% have beat on profit while 62% have managed to top on sales.
With company numbers in the spotlight, eyes were on Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) whose shares soared 5% in pre-market trade Thursday after the company posted its second profitable quarter ever and beat analyst expectations for the third quarter by a wide margin.
After the close on Wednesday, the automaker said it earned 71 cents a share on an adjusted basis in the third quarter on $2.3 billion in revenue. Analysts expected a loss of 54 cents per share on $1.98 billion in revenues, according to market estimates.
Early morning earnings reports are expected from Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), UPS (NYSE:UPS), Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Aetna (NYSE:AET), Blackstone (NYSE:BX), Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG), CME Group (NASDAQ:CME), Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE:DPS), Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) and T Rowe Price (NASDAQ:TROW).
After the bell, results are expected from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), and Aflac (NYSE:AFL).
Outside of earnings, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) announced on Thursday a deal to purchase NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) for $110 a share in a move designed to expand its reach in chips from phones to cars. Shares were up 2% and 3%, respectively.
On the economic front, traders will parse the latest data on U.S. durable goods, jobless claims and pending home sales on Thursday morning.
With markets gearing up for next week’s monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve (Fed), U.S. third-quarter growth figures scheduled for release on Friday could provide further hints on the future path of interest rates.
As analysts look past the November 2 decision due to its proximity to the U.S. presidential elections, Fed fund futures are currently pricing in a 78.3% chance of a rate hike at the December meeting, according to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose on concerns over political stability in Venezuela and as market players awaited details of a planned output cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
A technical committee appointed by OPEC will meet on Friday in Vienna to outline production quotas to be implemented at the official meeting of member states on November 30. Non-OPEC members were scheduled to participate on Saturday.
U.S. crude futures traded up 0.43% to $49.39 by 6:57AM ET (10:577GMT), while Brent oil gained 0.66% to $50.31.