By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes were on track for a muted open on Wednesday, following a selloff in tech and oil stocks in the previous session, as investors parsed quarterly results from banks including Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley rose 3.5% in premarket trading, with the bank joining peers such as JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) in reporting strong profits after a sharp increase in investment banking revenue.
Among other lenders, Citizens Financial (NYSE:CFG) Group slipped 1.8%, First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) gained 2% and U.S. Bancorp rose 2.8% after reporting third-quarter results.
Meanwhile, semiconductor companies were mixed, with heavyweight Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) up 0.8% after slumping nearly 5% in the previous session.
The U.S.-listing of chip equipment-maker ASML Holding (AS:ASML) lost 4.3% after the company cut its 2025 financial forecast when it reported results on Tuesday. The company also warned about market weakness and delayed orders, sparking concerns about the technology sector.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) dipped 1.7% after the Cybersecurity Association of China recommended initiating a review of the chipmaker's products sold in the country.
Steep declines in semiconductor and oil stocks dragged on Wall Street on Tuesday, as investors were assessing a mixed-bag of earnings. Shares of health insurer UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) also slumped, offsetting the gains from major banks reporting upbeat results.
"We're definitely looking to be pretty flat across major indices, we had a big down day yesterday, driven primarily by some idiosyncratic news around a few names, and that's going to continue in the middle of earnings season," said Zachary Hill, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments.
"Generally speaking, bank earnings have been pretty well received by the market and that has been helpful for broad indices... you definitely need things other than tech to be working in order for that to continue."
Dow E-minis were up 35 points, or 0.08%, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis were up 4.25 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 19.5 points, or 0.1%.
Futures tracking the small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 0.9% after the index closed flat in the previous session.
More corporate earnings are due through the week, along with key economic data including the retail sales and industrial production figures on Thursday, all of which are expected to shed light on consumer health and the growth outlook for the world's largest economy.
The S&P 500 and the Dow were trading around record high levels despite Tuesday's fall, with continued optimism about future rate cuts from the Federal Reserve as well as economic growth buoying sentiment.
Bets on a 25-basis-point rate cut at the central bank's November meeting have risen above 90%, according to CME's FedWatch.
Shares of Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ:IBKR) Group fell 2.8% after missing estimates for adjusted third-quarter earnings, while Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) gained 4.8% after the results.
United Airlines rose 1% after it forecast better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit and announced a $1.5-billion share buyback program on Tuesday.
J.B. Hunt climbed 7.1% after beating third-quarter profit estimates on Tuesday after the bell.