Wall Street starts higher as earnings boost optimism

The main Wall Street indices managed to make a positive start to Wednesday’s session as investors seemed to shrug off ongoing uncertainty to push forward with more gains. In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.14% to 28,721 while the S&P 500 climbed 0.09% to 3,515 and the Nasdaq was up 0.14% at 11,880. Earnings appear to have been the main factor behind the continued optimism among traders, with earnings beats from big banks such as Goldman Sachs indicating that the economy may be in better shape than initially feared. Some macro news may have also provided some positivity as producer prices were reported to have risen 0.4% in September, higher than the 0.3% consensus figure. 8.05am: Wall Street set for mixed open Wall Street is expected to see a mixed open, with spread-better quotes pointing at a barely red S&P 500 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq are called higher. Investors are weighing up the stimulus talks and the halts to COVID-19 trials by J&J and Eli Lilly, though markets are getting used to the ups and downs of pharma development. However, Washington is still stalled over the stimulus package as both sides are not getting closer to an agreement. “I struggle to see these differences being overcome before the election, the only comfort being that the Democrats are in a good position for a clean sweep, meaning any package could be larger again. But at what cost in the interim,” said Craig Erlam, analyst at OANDA Europe. “Investor sentiment is proving very resilient against this backdrop, perhaps driven by an unwavering belief that the next month could deliver a stimulus package, Covid vaccine, a relatively peaceful election result and a Brexit deal.” “That looks optimistic at the moment but equally, all of those individual outcomes are probably more likely than the alternative at this point. Some may take a little longer but all look likely.” On the US agenda Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Bank of America are scheduled to report today, after peer JP Morgan posted results suggesting it may be more optimistic about the economy than analysts anticipated. Five things to watch for on Wednesday: Banking results will continue to hold a lot of attention, with share price reaction to be eyed from Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) after the group topped profit and revenue estimates Meanwhile, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) will also be in focus, albeit for the opposite reasons after it beat profit forecasts but revenues fell short of estimates Completing the banking schedule for today is Wells Fargo, which also saw its third quarter revenues come in ahead of consensus but lower year-on-year Other stocks likely to hold attention are ConocoPhilip (NYSE:COP) following a Bloomberg report that the oil and gas firm is in talks to buy Concho Resources Inc (NYSE:CXO), and UnitedHealth Group Inc after the for-profit healthcare firm upgraded its full-year outlook after reporting third quarter results that beat expectations In macro news, the US producer prices index for September will provide an indication of costs at the factory gates for American producers. The figure increased 0.3% in August, with September’s figures estimated to show another 0.3% rise