U.S. stock futures traded higher Wednesday as Wall Street tried to build on a sharp rally from the previous session and traders cheered strong quarterly results from Netflix.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 54 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively.
Netflix surged more than 7% in after-hours trading after saying it lost only 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter, less than the 2 million it had previously projected. The streaming giant’s earnings per share also came in above analyst expectations.
Biogen and Baker Hughes are among the companies set to report later in the morning. Tesla and United Airlines are slated to post their latest quarterly results after the close.
About 10% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings thus far. Of those companies, nearly 69% have beaten analyst expectations, according to FactSet. Investors had been awaiting this earnings season as they search for clues on how companies are faring with inflation at levels not seen in 40 years.
The market was coming off a strong session, with the Dow rallying more than 700 points Tuesday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq soared 2.8% and 3.1%.
“This was a broad rally today and some of it is just lower dollar, lower commodity prices, better reopening dynamics – and we saw that across the board,” Tim Seymour, founder and chief investment officer of Seymour Asset Management, on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Tuesday.
The three benchmarks also closed above their respective 50-day moving averages for the first time since April, as traders bet the market had found a bottom.
Bank of America’s latest survey of professional investors showed that deteriorating investor sentiment has potentially set up a buying opportunity in the market. The U.S. dollar, which recently surged to a 20-year high against the euro, softened, giving the rally more steam.
Traders continued to review corporate reports in a busy earnings season.