Stock Futures Mostly Rise on Busy Earnings Day; Health Shares Plummet on Report of Flat Medicare Payments Proposal

Stock futures pointed to a mostly higher open Tuesday, with several big-name companies set to report quarterly results. However, shares of health insurers sank following a report that the Trump administration is proposing barely raising Medicare Advantage payment rates.

Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures rose 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.2%. Yesterday, the blue-chip Dow, benchmark S&P 500, and tech-heavy Nasdaq finished higher, with the Dow adding more than 300 points, to begin a busy week of tech earnings and the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates.

Shares of Dow component UnitedHealth Group (UNH) sank 13% before the bell after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed raising Medicare Advantage payment rates by just 0.09%, well below expectations. UnitedHealth also issued a soft fiscal 2026 revenue projection along with fiscal fourth-quarter results that mostly met estimates.

Other health-insurer stocks sank in premarket trading, with Humana (HUM) dropping 15% and CVS Health (CVS) down 11%, respectively.

However, chip stocks were rising before the bell. Micron Technology (MU) shares were up 5% after it broke ground on an advanced wafer fabrication facility in Singapore, where it plans to invest $24 billion amid strong demand for its memory chips. Shares of Intel (INTC), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) rose roughly 2% each, while Nvidia (NVDA) stock advanced nearly 1%.

Boeing (BA), United Parcel Service (UPS), General Motors (GM), and American Airlines (AAL) were among the big names reporting earnings Tuesday morning.

Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), and Tesla (TSLA) are slated to report results after the bell Wednesday—a day that will also see the Federal Reserve announce an interest-rate decision—while fellow Magnificent Seven firm Apple (AAPL) is set to do so after markets close Thursday. Shares of all four pointed slightly higher before the bell.

Gold futures were little changed at $5,085 an ounce after surpassing $5,000 for the first time yesterday. Silver futures slipped roughly 2.5% to $112.45 an ounce after reaching a record $117.70 Monday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury—which impacts interest rates on a variety of consumer loans including mortgages—ticked higher to 4.22%. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, was 0.5% higher at $60.90 a barrel. 

Bitcoin was trading at roughly $87,700, little changed on the day. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of global currencies, edged lower to 96.94.