By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening mostly higher Wednesday, making a further recovery from Monday’s sharp losses despite disappointing results from streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).
At 7:10 AM ET (1110 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 140 points, or 0.4%, S&P 500 Futures traded 10 points, or 0.2%, higher, while Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 20 points, or 0.1%.
The major equity indices had rebounded strongly on Tuesday from Monday’s Covid-inspired selloff, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining almost 550 points, its best day in more than a month, largely making back the previous day’s 700-point slump.
The second-quarter corporate earnings season is now in full swing, and a lot of Wednesday’s focus will be on Netflix after the streaming giant reported a net drop of 430,000 subscribers in the important North American market in the quarter. It also forecast 3.5 million net subscriber adds in the current quarter, well below market expectations of nearly 5 million.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) will also be in the spotlight after the fast food chain impressed with its quarterly results as dine-in customers returned to its restaurants, but warned that higher costs will offset the benefit of the hikes in menu prices in the near term.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) forecast just $2.5 billion in 2021 sales of its Covid-19 vaccine, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) raised its full-year outlook after the fast food giant reported strong second-quarter revenue, while numbers are also expected from the likes of Verizon (NYSE:VZ), Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) and Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR).
Elsewhere, oil prices strengthened Wednesday, rebounding after recent losses even after a surprise increase in U.S. crude stockpiles last week, at a time when rising Covid-19 infections threaten the demand outlook.
U.S. crude stocks increased by 0.81 million barrels for the week ended July 15, the American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday, which would be the first build since May, if confirmed by the Energy Information Administration later Wednesday.
Crude prices have sold off sharply in recent days, after climbing to their highest levels since 2014 earlier this month, as Covid-19 cases spread into the U.S. and Europe from Asia.
At 7:10 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.5% higher at $68.27 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.6% to $70.45. Both contracts are around 8% lower this week to date.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.5% to $1,802.15/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1772.