Benchmark indices on Wall Street had a mixed session on Tuesday, October 20, but futures rose in extended trading as the street digested a raft of quarterly results, most of which were better than expectations.
The Dow Jones ended over 500 points higher in regular trading on Tuesday, boosted by shares of 3M Company, which gained on strong results and an increased profit outlook. The stock, which has a 2% weightage on the Dow, ended with gains of nearly 5%. While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gave up initial gains to end 0.3% higher and just at the flat line respectively, their futures are witnessing a surge.
Nasdaq futures are up over 200 points after Elon Musk’s SpaceX blew past expectations on the revenue, profit and also on the guidance front for the first quarter of 2027. Elon Musk also said on the earnings call that both Tesla and SpaceX’s boards have formed special committees to explore the idea of a merger. The stock surged 8% in extended trading and commands a 2.82% weightage on the Nasdaq 100 after the rebalancing exercise, thereby boosting its futures.
Futures of the Nasdaq were also boosted by shares of the controversial company Super Micro, which surged after its preliminary earnings report projected revenue and margin figures that were higher than what analysts had anticipated. Revenue is projected to be between $18.5 billion to $19.5 billion compared to expectations of $15 billion on average. The stock jumped 15% in extended trading.
This surge in the Nasdaq futures comes despite a disappointing quarter from streaming giant Netflix, which reported its third straight quarter of slowing revenue growth, and has guided for a fourth one as well. The streaming giant attributed the slowdown to the advertising business, which is expected to bring in $300 million lesser revenue than what the company anticipated. The stock fell 7% in extended trading.
With the slew of results being reported, the focus moved away momentarily from the rising oil prices. Brent crude on Tuesday made an intraday high of $112 a barrel, before cooling off to settle at $109 a barrel. Bloomberg reported that reports of the US and Iran being close to a diplomatic solution to end the war are inaccurate.
According to Kpler, over 18 vessels have been attacked so far in the Persian Gulf over the last two weeks. The firm added that trend following commodity traders are 100% “maximum long” on both Brent and WTI, increasing the chances of a sharp unwind in case of any bearish news.
While no major macro report is lined up today, there will be a slew of AI and Semiconductor-linked results that will be reported after the closing bell today, including those from Meta Platforms, Texas Instruments, and IBM. Tesla will also be reporting results today.