April 27 (Reuters) – Wall Street futures were muted early on Monday as peace talks between the U.S. and Iran stalled, while investors awaited a flood of earnings as well as commentary from the Federal Reserve meeting this week.
With a peace agreement still out of reach, investors have drawn reassurance from solid earnings so far.
Of the 139 companies in the S&P 500 that reported results as of Friday, 81.3% surpassed earnings expectations, compared with the prior four-quarter average of 78.1%, according to data from LSEG.
However, since the results reflect only the first month of disruption linked to the Middle East, some have questioned how dependable they are as an indicator of future performance.
At 5:44 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 65 points, or 0.13%, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis were down 5.75 points, or 0.08%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 13.75 points, or 0.05%.
“We are suffering from a distinct lack of clarity at the moment. There is also a growing divergence among financial market participants,” said Richard de Chazal, macro analyst at William Blair.
“Equity market investors seem to have moved on from the war and are back on the AI technology trade. Meanwhile, commentary from participants in the commodity markets continues to signal that the shock is being completely underestimated.”
Brent crude futures were trading 2.7% higher on Monday, and are hovering 49% above pre-war levels.
In the premarket session, Qualcomm was up 10.6%, while Intel rose 2.7% after jumping 23.6% in the previous session.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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