S&P 500, Dow Futures Up After Positive Forecasts From IBM, AT&T

The New York Stock Exchange building is seen from Broad Street in Lower Manhattan in New York, January 20, 2016. Reuters

Futures tracking the Dow and S&P 500 gained on Thursday as positive forecasts from IBM and AT&T helped offset declines from Tesla after it warned of missing its vehicle delivery target this year.

IBM Corp rose 3.3% in premarket trading, leading the advance among Dow components after the software and IT services company beat quarterly earnings estimates on Wednesday and said it expects to exceed full-year revenue growth targets.

Fellow blue-chip stock Verizon Communications Inc shares added 0.6% after peer wireless carrier AT&T Inc added 2.5% upon raising its annual profit forecast.

American Airlines Group Inc also expects to report a profit in the December quarter above Wall Street estimates, pushing its shares up 2.9%.

The positive forecasts arrive after upbeat results by big U.S. banks, Netflix Inc, Procter & Gamble Co and Travelers Companies Inc, prompted analysts to raise third-quarter profit growth expectations for S&P 500 companies to 3% from 2.8%, according to Refinitiv data. However, the estimate is still sharply lower than an 11.1% increase forecast at the start of July.

Shares of electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc dropped 5.1% as the company flagged persistent logistics challenges, with fourth-quarter deliveries growing by less than the aimed 50%.

The main U.S. indexes have in the last two months been hammered by fears of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, that have pushed Treasury yields to multi-year highs amid no real signs of U.S. inflation slowing.

The U.S. central bank is expected to deliver its fourth straight 75 basis-point hike in its November meeting, with some even pricing in a full percentage point raise.

Snap Inc rose 1.3% as it is seen kicking off earnings season for tech and social media companies later in the day, with expectations of modest revenue growth across most of the sector as results will be compared with a difficult 2021 when Apple Inc's privacy changes began to upend the advertising industry.

Alphabet Inc and Meta Platforms Inc, which make majority of their revenues from digital ad sales, edged higher ahead of results next week.

At 7:40 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 117 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6 points, or 0.16%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 8.5 points, or 0.08%.