US STOCKS-Wall St set to climb at open as earnings optimism overshadows oil woes

Caterpillar

30/04/2026 14:03

Futures up: Dow 0.69%, S&P 500 0.46% and Nasdaq 0.64%

Alphabet, Amazon rise after strong results

Meta, Microsoft fall on capex concerns

Eli Lilly gains after lifting forecast

Updates after economic data

By Niket Nishant and Utkarsh    Hathi

April 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to open higher on Thursday as investors drew comfort from strong earnings, even as fears about an escalation in the Middle East conflict deepened.

Data released on Thursday showed that U.S. economic growth picked up in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending, but the increase is likely temporary as the war with Iran drives up gasoline prices and squeezes household budgets.

Investors have been struggling to reconcile with competing narratives, with upbeat earnings on one hand and worsening Middle East tensions on the other.

Big Tech earnings were largely strong, with shares of Google parent Alphabet GOOGL.O rising 7.3% in premarket trading following a record quarter for its cloud unit, while Amazon AMZN.O added 3.4% after exceeding cloud sales expectations.

However, Meta Platforms META.O and Microsoft MSFT.O fell 8.4% and 0.8%, respectively, a day after they laid out their capital spending plans.

At 8:43 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 rose 336 points, or 0.69%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 32.75 points, or 0.46%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 174.25 points, or 0.64%.

Investors were also assessing commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday. The central bank voted to keep interest rates unchanged, but three officials signaled that inflation was too high to signal a bias toward rate cuts.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 hit their highest in nearly four years on fears of a protracted disruption in oil markets, after an Axios report said President Donald Trump was slated to receive a briefing from the leader of the U.S. Central Command on new plans for potential military action against Iran.

"There also appears to be an increased urgency from the Trump administration to bring things to a head," said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation.

Oil prices retreated from their peaks, but remain elevated, above $110 a barrel.

The Axios report undermined weeks of optimism that diplomatic efforts to resolve the U.S.-Iran war would stay on track despite setbacks.

"The oil market has moved from over-optimism to the reality of the supply disruption. The breakdown of talks between the U.S. and Iran... has the market losing hope for any quick resumption in oil flows," said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Economics.

Among other stocks, Eli Lilly LLY.N gained 6.4% after the drugmaker lifted its annual profit forecast on sustained weight-loss drug demand.

Caterpillar CAT.N shares rose 7.5% after the construction and mining equipment maker reported higher first-quarter profit.

 (Reporting by Niket Nishant and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Shinjini Ganguli)

 ((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))