Stocks Rise Pre-Bell as Investors Await More Earnings, Monitor Middle East Developments
US equity futures were trending higher on Tuesday as traders await a fresh batch of corporate earnings and monitor developments in the Middle East.The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% each in premarket activity, while the Nasdaq added 0.6%. The indexes finished the previous trading session lower.Shopify (SHOP), Pfizer (PFE), Duke Energy (DUK), KKR (KKR), Ferrari (RACE), American Electric Power (AEP), Transdigm (TDG), PayPal (PYPL) and Rockwell Automation (ROK) report their latest financial results before the bell, among others.Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Arista Networks (ANET) and Strategy (MSTR) are expected to announce their earnings after the markets close.Shares of Palantir Technologies (PLTR) fell 3.3% pre-bell even though the software maker raised its full-year revenue outlook and reported first-quarter results above Wall Street's expectations. Pinterest (PINS) jumped 17% as the image-sharing platform company recorded better-than-expected first-quarter results.Investors were watching developments in the Middle East closely after a day of heightened tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. The US military destroyed six Iranian boats on Monday in the strait after Tehran attacked US Navy ships and commercial vessels, CNN reported, citing Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of the US Central Command. A senior Iranian military official reportedly disputed that claim.Iran fired missiles and drones at the United Arab Emirates, the UAE's Defense Ministry said in a post on X.President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday that Iran will be "blown off the face of the Earth" if they attack US vessels that support his initiative to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz.West Texas Intermediate crude oil declined 2.2% to $104.09 a barrel before the opening bell, while Brent decreased 1.4% to $112.79."Absent a reopening of the strait within the next several weeks, the global oil market, in our view, is likely to enter a period of explicit demand rationing within the current quarter," Wells Fargo Investment Institute Chief Investment Officer Darrell Cronk said Monday.Tuesday's economic calendar has the international trade in goods and services report for March at 8:30 am ET, followed by the purchasing managers' index composite final report from S&P Global (SPGI) for April at 9:45 am.New home sales reports for February and March are expected to be out at 10 am, along with the Institute for Supply Management's services index for the previous month. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for March also posts at 10 am.Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman is slated to speak at 10 am, while Fed Governor Michael Barr speaks at 12:30 pm.New York Fed President John Williams said Monday that the Middle East conflict could keep inflation elevated for some time.Treasury yields were down in premarket action, with the two-year rate retreating 2.8 basis points to 3.93% and the 10-year rate off 2.2 basis points to 4.42%.Gold inclined 0.7% to $4,563 per troy ounce, while bitcoin advanced 1% to $80,756.