U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday, as investors welcomed a batch of strong corporate earnings and digested the latest inflation data.
Goldman Sachs (GS) posted profit and revenue for the third quarter that topped expectations. Shares of the investment bank rose slightly following the news.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) logged quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations, sending shares 1% higher in premarket trading. Meanwhile Coca-Cola (KO) reported earnings per share that were in line with expectations, but revenue was slightly lower than anticipated.
Intel (INTC) and IBM (IBM) will report after the close. Overall, companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report third-quarter earnings that are down 1% from last year, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Meanwhile, the September reading of the Consumer Price Index, the government's key metric for inflation, rose 0.6%. That's higher than the 0.5% increase that economists polled by Briefing.com had been expecting. Compared to a year earlier, prices have risen 2%. Based on this data, the Social Security Administration announced that Social Security recipients will receive a 1.7% cost-of-living increase in 2013.
Also on tap for Tuesday morning, data on foreign purchases of Treasuries for August will be released before the stock market opens, followed by reports on industrial production and capacity utilization for September from the Federal Reserve.
U.S. stocks ended higher Monday, as investors welcomed a sharp rise in retail sales and better-than-expected quarterly earnings from Citigroup (C).
Companies: Citigroup (C) announced Tuesday morning that CEO Vikram Pandit is stepping down. Michael Corbat, who previously served as Citi's CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa, was named as his replacement.
World Markets: European stocks were higher in midday trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.9%, the DAX in Germany added 1.3% and France's CAC 40 jumped 1.3%.
Asian markets ended mostly higher. The Shanghai Composite finished flat, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong ticked up 0.3%, and Japan's Nikkei climbed 1.4%.
Currencies and commodities: The dollar slipped against the euro and the British pound, but gained versus the Japanese yen.
Oil for November delivery rose 8 cents to $91.93 a barrel.
Gold futures for December delivery rose $4.10 to $1,741.70 an ounce.
Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 1.7% from 1.66% late Monday.
