US pre-open: Futures trade slightly higher as earnings continue to roll in
Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Wednesday after major indices recorded heavy losses in the previous session amid rising bond yields.
As of 1215 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.18%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.25% and 0.44% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 543.34 points lower on Tuesday as market participants digested more corporate earnings and kept one eye on government bond yields sitting at pandemic-era highs.
Corporate earnings will again be one of the session's primary focusses on Wednesday, with Bank of America beating estimates on the Street after releasing its Covid-19 pandemic-related loan loss reserves, while Procter & Gamble earnings topped estimates and raised its 2022 full-year forecasts.
UnitedHealth and Morgan Stanley were also set to report before the open, while United Airlines and Intel will publish their latest quarterly figures after the close.
Bond yields were still drawing investor attention as they continued to rise, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note advancing to 1.885% prior to the open.
On the macro front, mortgage applications rose 2.3% in the US last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, driven by a 7.9% increase in loans to buy a home, which was somewhat offset by a 3.1% drop in refinancing applications to their lowest level in over two years.
The move comes as the MBA's weekly measure of the average contract rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage climbed to 3.64% in the week ended 14 January, up from 3.52% a week earlier to the highest level seen since March 2020, when the pandemic triggered a recession and drove borrowing costs to historic lows.
Still to come, building permits and housing starts data for December will be published at 1330 GMT.