Stock Futures Tick Higher After Indexes Set Fresh Records; UnitedHealth Group Rises on Raised Outlook

Stock futures pointed slightly higher Tuesday, a day after major indexes set fresh intraday and closing records for a second straight session, as a highly anticipated Federal Reserve meeting was set to begin. 

Futures associated with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average and tech-heavy Nasdaq were up 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively, while those of the benchmark S&P 500 were fractionally higher. Yesterday, the Nasdaq soared 1.9%, the S&P 500 added 1.2%, and the Dow rose 0.7% on optimism that the U.S. and China would strike a trade deal, with President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping set to meet in South Korea on Thursday.

Safe-haven gold futures, which pulled back more than 3% yesterday, were down a further 2% at $3,940 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were down about 1.5% to $60.45.

The 10-year Treasury yield was little changed at 3.98%, while the U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, ticked lower to 98.72. Bitcoin was trading in a tight range at around $114,400.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) stock was up nearly 4% in premarket trading after the healthcare giant reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit and lifted its full-year earnings outlook.

Shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) were 1.5% lower before the bell after soaring 11% yesterday to pace the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on news it would be launching AI chips for data centers that will compete with those from Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Nvidia shares, which closed up 2.8% yesterday to pace the Dow, were up less than 1% ahead of a keynote on artificial intelligence at noon ET by CEO Jensen Huang at a company conference. AMD shares were down about 0.5% after a 2.7% gain Monday.

Shares of Magnificent Seven members Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) were up a respective 0.2%, 0.3%, and 0.6% a day ahead of their high-profile quarterly results. Microsoft entered Tuesday with a market capitalization of about $3.95 trillion.

Another company on the cusp of crossing the $4 trillion market cap threshold is Apple (AAPL), whose value sits at nearly $3.99 trillion entering today’s session. Shares of Apple, which is set to report earnings Thursday, edged lower before the bell after advancing 2.3% to an all-time high yesterday.

Shares of Amazon (AMZN), which also is set to report results after the bell Thursday, were up less than 1% following a Reuters report that it was targeting as many as 30,000 corporate job cuts beginning today.

Elsewhere, PayPal (PYPL) stock soared 15% after inking a deal with OpenAI to have its digital wallet embedded into ChatGPT for purchases, while United Parcel Service (UPS) shares jumped 10% after strong quarterly results.