Stock Futures Creep Up Ahead of Tech Earnings

U.S. stock futures edged up ahead of a big week of earnings from major technology companies.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 ticked up 0.1% Monday, pointing to an extension of last week’s rise, which saw the broad market index climb 1.6% and hit a fresh high. Nasdaq-100 futures added 0.2%, suggesting moderate gains for technology stocks after the opening bell. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were relatively flat.

Facebook is scheduled to report third-quarter results Monday after markets close. Microsoft, Twitter and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, are scheduled for Tuesday. Apple and Amazon.com are expected to report later in the week.

In premarket trading, shares of PayPal jumped close to 7% after it said it wasn’t pursuing a takeover of social-media company Pinterest, pushing back against recent media reports. Pinterest shares tumbled over 12%.

Strong earnings from banks, consumer companies and manufacturers have sent stocks higher over the past week and soothed investors’ concerns that higher inflation and labor shortages could erode profits.

“One of the more notable takeaways from the earnings reports seen so far has been the ability of companies, for the most part, to pass on increases in prices onto their customers without seeing a drop in sales,” said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets.

Disappointing results last week from social-media company Snap, which warned that tougher privacy rules from Apple would likely crimp its advertising sales, could be a “canary in the coal mine for the rest of the tech sector,” Mr. Hewson said. Should the tech giants reporting earnings this week also post dour outlooks, it “could see the mood sour quite quickly.”

A key question remaining is how global central banks will respond to rising prices. Recent trading in short-dated U.K. gilts suggests investors think the British government may raise interest rates as soon as November. Investors await comments from the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan, which both have meetings scheduled this week. The Federal Reserve has signaled a possible rate increase next year.

Money managers are also closely watching negotiations among U.S. lawmakers about the fate of President Joe Biden’s sweeping social-policy spending package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that she was optimistic an agreement could be reached this week on the framework for the legislation, and a vote on a separate infrastructure funding bill.

Government spending on that scale “will continue to support growth,” said Esty Dwek, chief investment officer at Swiss online bank FlowBank. “The question now is more about taxes and how they will pay for it.”

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 1.659% Monday from 1.654% on Friday. Yields move inversely to bond prices.

Bitcoin rose 1.9% Monday above its level at 5 p.m. ET Friday, trading around $61,900. The cryptocurrency has wavered after it cleared $66,000 to hit a new all-time high last week.

Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 was relatively flat Monday. Among European equities, HSBC rose 1% after it reported a jump in third-quarter profit and said it would spend up to $2 billion on stock buybacks. UniCredit declined 0.8% after talks with the Italian government to acquire nationalized lender Monte dei Paschi collapsed.

In Asia, major benchmarks were mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.8% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.7%.

The Turkish lira depreciated 1.4% to its weakest level on record, trading at around 9.8 lira to the dollar Monday, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to expel the U.S. ambassador and top diplomats from nine other Western countries over the weekend.