US STOCKS-Futures gain as deadline for fresh stimulus looms

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* Futures up: Dow 0.5%, S&P and Nasdaq 0.6%

By Medha Singh
Oct 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday
on expectations that Washington lawmakers would be able to
settle their differences for an economic stimulus bill to pass
before the Nov. 3 presidential elections.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury
Secretary Steve Mnuchin will talk again on Tuesday, after a
53-minute telephone conversation on Monday "continued to narrow
their differences" about the coronavirus aid package, a Pelosi
spokesman said on Twitter. Uncertainty over the fiscal stimulus weighed on Wall
Street's main indexes on Monday, with analysts expecting market
turbulence to increase with only two weeks left until Election
Day.
Meanwhile, third-quarter earnings season gathered momentum
with companies including property and casualty insurer Travelers
Cos Inc TRV.N , consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co
PG.N and jet maker Lockheed Martin LMT.N scheduled to report
results before the bell.
Of the 50 S&P 500 companies that have reported results, 86%
have topped expectations for earnings, according to Refinitiv
IBES data.
Netflix Inc NFLX.O added 0.9% in premarket trading as
investors awaited the stay-at-home winner's membership additions
in the third quarter. International Business Machines Corp IBM.N edged past
estimates for quarterly revenue, bolstered by higher demand for
its cloud services. IBM shares, however, fell 2.9% after the
company stayed away from issuing a current-quarter forecast,
citing economic uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At 06:17 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 rose 0.50% to 28,241
points and S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 0.58% to 3,442.5
points. Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 gained 0.63% to 11,723
points.