Wall Street pointed toward gains before the opening bell today, according to the Associated Press, as a flurry of companies report earnings. Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, while futures for the Dow Jones industrials inched up 0.2%.
In early hours trading, Netflix jumped 10% after the streaming entertainment giant reported another quarter of strong subscriber growth late Tuesday.
Online auction site eBay rose 3.9% after it became the latest tech company to reduce its head count, saying it will cut an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce.
Dupont tumbled nearly 11% before the bell today after it gave a weaker than expected forecast, and AT&T fell 4% after its fourth-quarter profit fell short of Wall Street targets.
Analysts have forecast companies in the S&P 500 will deliver weaker overall earnings per share than a year ago, which would be the fourth such decline in the last five quarters, according to FactSet. Sill, stocks have rallied to records in anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times this year.
Treasury yields have already eased considerably since fall on expectations for coming rate cuts, though critics warn traders may have gone overboard again in forecasting how many cuts will come and how soon the Fed will begin.
In other trading this morning, U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 21 cents to $74.16 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 29 cents to $79.26 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar slipped to 147.32 Japanese yen from 148.38 yen.
