(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Tuesday following the benchmark S&P 500’s worst day in a month as investors parsed through a deluge of corporate earnings, while bracing for volatility ahead of Election Day.
Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co LLY.N fell 4% after it reported a fall in quarterly profit. Industrial companies 3M Co MMM.N and Caterpillar Inc CAT.N were flat to slightly lower after results.
Investors are looking forward to results from Apple Inc AAPL.O, Amazon.com AMZN.O, Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O and Facebook Inc FB.O in an earnings-heavy week as the technology giants have managed to stand out during the coronavirus pandemic.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit three week lows on Monday as record number of new coronavirus infections in the United States and some European countries and a lack of agreement in Washington over the next U.S. fiscal stimulus raised worries about the economic recovery.
Wall Street’s fear gauge .VIX perked up on Tuesday after closing at its highest level in nearly two months on concerns about President Donald Trump’s unexpected victory or an uncertain election outcome.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden leads in national polls but the race is much tighter in battleground states which determine the election outcome.
At 06:19 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 0.13% at 27619 points and S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 rose 0.27% to 3,402.5 points. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 0.42% to 11,540 points.
Insurer American International Group Inc AIG.N jumped 7.1% premarket after its board approved a plan to separate the life and retirement business from the rest of the company, and named President Peter Zaffino as chief executive officer, effective next year.
Semiconductor designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD.O fell about 3% as it agreed to buy Xilinx Inc XLNX.O in a $35 billion all-stock deal that will intensify its battle with Intel Corp INTC.O in the data center chip market. Xilinx shares soared about 12%.
(This story corrects to add punctuation in paragraph 1.)
Source: Read Full Article