US pre-open: Futures in the green as corporate earnings roll in

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Tuesday as corporate earnings from a number of the nation's biggest firms began to roll in.

As of 1245 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.24%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.31% and 0.35% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed 253.58 points higher on Monday as market participants awaited several key quarterly earnings reports.

Corporate earnings were firmly in focus early on Tuesday, with UPS shares trading higher in pre-market following better-than-expected quarterly figures, while PepsiCo shares headed south despite publishing a quarterly earnings beat.

General Motors raised its full-year guidance on the back of a big Q1 earnings beat, Spotify said it had turned a profit last quarter as revenues came in ahead of estimates, and JetBlue shares flew lower after revealing its Q1 loss had widened significantly and issued a profit warnings for the year as a whole.

Tesla will report earnings after the closing bell.

Trade Nation's David Morrison said: "US stock indices started the week on the front foot and were building on Monday's gains this morning. Buyers came back into the market following a dismal week which saw traders’ favourite, Nvidia, drop around 14%, with over half of that loss coming on Friday alone. The stock was up 1.2% in early trade, building on yesterday's 4.4% gain. Last week also saw the S&P 500 trade below 5,000 for the first time in two months. So, yesterday's rally provided much-needed relief for the bulls who are tentatively dipping their toes back in. It’s certainly the case that a fair amount of froth has been blown off the top of the market so far in April. But is it enough?"

On the macro front, a preliminary reading of S&P Global's April manufacturing and services PMIs will be published at 1445 BST, while March's new homes sales figures and the Richmond Fed's April manufacturing index were slated for release at 1500 BST.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com