US pre-open: Stocks slightly higher as earnings continue to pour in

Wall Street futures had stocks opening slightly higher ahead of the bell yet again on Wednesday as major corporate earnings remained firmly in focus.

As of 1230 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.01%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.29% and 0.60% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed 475.57 points higher on Tuesday concerns regarding a recent wave of speculative retail trading subsided.

Solid earnings from both Amazon and Google parent Alphabet were in focus ahead of the bell, with the former nearly doubling Wall Street estimates, and following the stock's absurd run last week, GameStop was in the red for a third straight day before the opening bell, with the shares having now tumbled over 70% so far this week.

Quarterly results from Biogen, Boston Scientific, GlaxoSmithKline, Qualcomm, eBay and PayPal will all be on tap today, while market participants will also be monitoring discussions surrounding another stimulus package in Washington after President Joe Biden met with ten Republican senators earlier in the week to talk over a reduced aid proposal when compared to his $1.9trn package.

On the macro front, mortgage applications increased 8.15% week-on-week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, breaking a two-week streak of declines. The refinance index also improved 11% on the prior week – up to its highest level since March 2020 and 59% higher year-on-year.

Still to come, ADP employment change figures for January will be released at 1315 GMT, while IHS Markit's January composite and services PMIs will follow at 1445 GMT and ISM's non-manufacturing PMI will be published at 1500 GMT.

Federal Reserve presidents James Bullard, Patrick Harker, Charles Evans, Loretta Master and Robert Kaplan will all deliver speeches later in the day.