US pre-open: Futures edge higher as traders look ahead to earnings
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Monday 20 Oct 2025
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell as investors looked ahead to a busy week of corporate earnings and key inflation data releases.
As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.26%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.29% and 0.37% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 238.37 points higher on Friday as the White House's softening rhetoric on trade talks with China offset concerns over regional banks' lending practices.
Stocks traded higher in pre-market action as sentiment got a boost from reports that Donald Trump had recently exempted dozens of products from reciprocal tariffs and offered to exempt hundreds more, reflecting a growing view within the administration that duties on non-domestically produced goods should be eased.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said on Friday that US-China relations had "de-escalated" and that he now expected to meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in the coming week, raising hopes that the threatened 100% tariff hike on Chinese imports from 1 November may be avoided.
Monday's pre-market moves come following a volatile week for stocks, with major indices ultimately closing higher despite renewed US-China tensions, regional bank losses and weakness in high-growth AI stocks, as a strong start to the third-quarter earnings season and expectations for a 25 basis point rate cut at the Federal Reserve's October meeting helped underpin sentiment.
In the corporate space, Q3 earnings season will heat up this week, with Netflix, Coca-Cola, Tesla and Intel among the big names set to report their latest results this week.
Also of note was the ongoing US government shutdown, which has entered its fourth week, has now started to look like it could become the longest in US history, with Democrats and Republicans still at odds over federal healthcare subsidies.
No major data points were scheduled for release on Monday, but traders were getting ready to receive some clarity this week, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index scheduled to be released on Friday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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