Nuscale Power earnings missed by $0.02, revenue fell short of estimates
(Adds dropped word "to" in headline)
* Citi rises after qtrly profit beat
* Boeing drops on report MAX groundings could extend to 2020
* Paper packaging cos drop after KeyBanc downgrade
* Futures rise: Dow 0.20%, S&P 0.20%, Nasdaq 0.24%
By Medha Singh
July 15 (Reuters) - Wall Street was set to extend last
week's gains at the open on Monday as second-quarter corporate
earnings got off to an upbeat start with results from the third
largest U.S lender, Citigroup, beating expectations.
Shares of the Wall Street bank rose 0.7% in premarket trade
as a tight lid on costs and strength in consumer lending helped
it counter weakness in trading business. Other Wall Street big banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co
JPM.N , Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N ,
also rose between 0.4% and 0.7% ahead of their results on
Tuesday.
Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St.
Petersburg, Florida, said optimism around corporate earnings,
given the likelihood positive surprises due to lower estimates,
and hopes of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve are
helping lift markets.
As companies start reporting quarterly results, investors
will assess how deep an impact the long-drawn U.S.-China trade
dispute has had on corporate profit. Comments from companies on scarcity of labor and the effect
of higher wages on profit are things to look out for, Brown
said.
Other companies set to report earnings this week include
Bank of America Corp BAC.N , Netflix Inc NFLX.O , Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O and Honeywell International Inc HON.N .
Profits from S&P 500 companies is expected to dip 0.4%
year-over-year, the first quarterly decline in three years,
according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Last week, gains in stocks were powered by comments from Fed
Chairman Jerome Powell that reassured investors that an interest
rate cut was highly likely at the central bank's policy meeting
later this month.
The S&P 500 .SPX closed above 3,000 point mark for the
first time on Friday as investors rebuilt their bets of a sharp
50 basis-point rate cut at the July 30-31 meeting.
Also helping the mood was upbeat data out of China.
Quarterly growth at the world's second largest economy beat
analysts' forecasts, while June reports on industrial
production, retail sales and urban investment were also well
above expectations. At 8:27 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 54 points, or
0.2%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 6 points, or 0.2% and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 19.25 points, or 0.24%.
Among other stocks, Boeing Co BA.N fell 1.3% after a
report that its 737 Max jet may stay grounded until early 2020.
General Electric Co GE.N fell 1% after brokerage UBS
downgraded shares of the industrial conglomerate to "neutral"
from "buy", according to traders.
Shares of paper packaging companies Westrock Co WRK.N ,
Packaging Corp of America PKG.N and International Paper Co
IP.N fell between 2.1% and 3.1% and were among the top losers
on the benchmark index before the bell.
KeyBanc downgraded their shares, citing risks from a further
fall in containerboard and pulp prices.