* Tesla to report Q1 earnings after markets close
* Financials lead gains among S&P 500 sectors
* Indexes up: Dow 0.18%, S&P 0.18%, Nasdaq 0.17%
(Updates to open)
By Shivani Kumaresan and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 26 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on
Monday as Tesla shares gained ahead of the electric-car maker's
earnings report, which would kick off this week's results from
heavyweight technology companies.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O rose 1.1% as analysts expect the company
to report a rise in first-quarter revenue when it reports after
markets close following record deliveries during the period.
About 40% of the S&P 500's market cap report from Tuesday
through Thursday, including tech and related heavyweights
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Google parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O ,
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Facebook Inc FB.O . Shares of the
companies were mixed in early trading.
"The market is in a holding pattern waiting for big-tech
earnings. We could see a bifurcated result in tech earnings with
ad providers like Facebook and Google doing very well, while
Apple coming up against very tough comparison year-on-year,"
said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC, New York.
Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading higher,
with financials .SPSY gaining the most, while defensive
utilities .SPLRCU and consumer staples .SPLRCS led declines.
Of the 123 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so
far, 85.4% have topped analysts' earnings estimates, with
Refinitiv IBES data now predicting a 33.9% jump in profit
growth.
Investors are also looking forward to the two-day Federal
Reserve meeting beginning on Tuesday and the first-quarter gross
domestic product numbers later this week to gauge the pace of
the economic recovery.
At 9:58 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 62.54 points, or 0.18%, at 34,106.03, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 7.64 points, or 0.18%, at 4,187.81 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 24.49 points, or 0.17%, at 14,041.30.
Market participants are also watching out for any fresh
developments on Biden's tax plan after reports last week said he
would seek to nearly double the capital gains tax to 39.6% for
wealthy individuals. Meanwhile, analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley,
Deutsche Bank have warned of some turbulence ahead, after a
rally that has taken the S&P 500 .SPX and Dow .DJI to fresh
records this year. Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related firms like Riot
Blockchain RIOT.O and Marathon Patent Group MARA.O rose in
early trading as Bitcoin BTC=BTSP looked set to snap five
straight days of losses. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.22-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 2.09-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 88 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 94 new highs and seven new lows.