By Johann M Cherian and Ankika Biswas
(Reuters) -Wall Street was poised for a slightly higher open on Wednesday, with investors taking stock of major earnings from the likes of Ford and Snap while continuing to look out for more clues from policymakers on the outlook for interest-rate cuts.
Ford Motor (NYSE:F) jumped 5.6% in premarket trading after the automaker increased its first-quarter dividend and decided to scale back investments in new capacity for loss-making electric vehicles. General Motors (NYSE:GM) also added 1.3%.
On the flip side, Snap slumped 30.1% on missing quarterly revenue estimates, as the Snapchat owner struggled to compete for advertising dollars against heavyweights such as Meta and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) . Peer Pinterest shed 3.3%.
Among others, Uber Technologies forecast quarterly core profit and gross bookings above estimates. However, its shares were last down 1.6% in choppy trade.
Fortinet jumped 9.7% on the cybersecurity firm's fourth-quarter profit beat, while U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holding lost 4.2% after the company posting downbeat quarterly revenue.
"So far, earnings have come in a little bit better than expected. It's not outstanding, but certainly better than the negative numbers people were expecting," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
With over half of S&P 500 companies having reported earnings, 81.2% surpassed expectations, according to LSEG data on Tuesday. Overall, S&P 500 companies' fourth-quarter earnings are expected to have risen 8.1% from the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street hit a banal patch this week following a stellar performance in the months before that saw the benchmark S&P 500 extend a bull-market run on widely resilient earnings and optimism around rate cuts this year.
With Chair Jerome Powell ruling out a March rate reduction, traders are awaiting fresh clues from central bankers on the timing of the policy easing, most of whom have refrained from issuing a timeline against the backdrop of a resilient economy.
Focus is squarely on remarks from Fed officials including Governor Adriana Kugler, voting member Thomas Barkin and Susan Collins expected through the day.
At 8:25 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 47 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 12.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 65 points, or 0.37%.
Among other big movers, New York Community Bancorp reversed losses and added 8.3%. The lender said it appointed Alessandro DiNello as executive chairman to its board, a day after ratings agency Moody's downgraded the firm's long-term debt ratings to junk status.
Roblox jumped 12.5% after the gaming platform forecast strong annual bookings, as it crossed $1 billion in quarterly bookings for the first time on higher in-game spending during the holiday season.
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) lost 2.5% as its fourth-quarter revenue dipped 4%, while VF Corp (NYSE:VFC) shed 9.8% after missing expectations for third-quarter results, with the Vans sneaker maker also announcing CFO Matt Puckett's exit this year.
Enphase Energy surged 16.8% as the solar inverter maker expects inventory levels to normalize and demand for its products to pick up by the end of second quarter.
Warner Bros Discovery gained 3.2% on the company's plans to launch a sports streaming service with Fox Corp and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)'s ESPN later this autumn. Sports streaming platform FuboTV (NYSE:FUBO) plunged 13.5% on competition concerns.