S&P 500 futures slip as Google parent’s slump offsets Microsoft advance

What’s driving markets

The mood in stocks was cautious as investors awaited the next installment of a third-quarter corporate earnings season that so far has been afforded a mixed reception by the market.

Helping sentiment was some less volatile action in government bond markets as 10-year Treasury yields
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
firmed a touch on Wednesday but remained near one-week lows.

But this was being counteracted somewhat by lingering concerns about Middle East tensions and reports that troubled Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings Co.
2007,
-2.82%
has been declared in default on a dollar bond.

Still, traders’ main focus for now — ahead of inflation data on Friday and the Federal Reserve policy meeting next week — is earnings. Premarket share price moves by technology giants Microsoft
MSFT,
+0.37%,
up 3%, and Alphabet
GOOG,
+1.61%,
down nearly 7%, after they delivered numbers following Tuesday’s close, illustrate the hit-and-miss nature of the results season to date.

With nearly a quarter of S&P 500 companies having reported, 81.4% of those beat analyst expectations, notably better than the 67% of beats in a typical quarter since 1994, according to data from LSEG.

Despite this, analysts noted that the stock market was struggling to make headway. “A sharp, high breadth equity rally is needed nearly right away to prevent selling pressure into late October,” said Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat. “Given the degree of broader market weakness, the burden of proof is certainly on the bulls,” he added.

Companies releasing their results on Wednesday include Boeing
BA,
+0.73%,
T-Mobile
TMUS,
+2.42%
and General Dynamics
GD,
-0.09%
before Wall Street’s opening bell, followed by Meta Platforms
META,
-0.46%,
IBM
IBM,
+1.03%
and ServiceNow
NOW,
+2.40%
after the close.

U.S. economic updates set for release on Wednesday include new home sales for September, due at 10 a.m. Eastern.