Supporting futures linked to the blue-chip Dow, Honeywell jumped 5.3% after posting a rise in adjusted profit for the first quarter (Q1).
United Parcel Service, a bellwether for the economy, gained 2.6% in premarket trading after its quarterly results.
Meanwhile, US officials said President Donald Trump’s administration will move to reduce the impact of his automotive tariffs by alleviating some duties imposed on foreign parts in domestically manufactured cars, and keeping tariffs on cars made abroad from piling on top of other ones.
General Motors slipped 2.8% after the automaker pulled its annual forecast due to tariff uncertainty.
Shares of automakers Ford and Tesla dipped marginally, reversing earlier gains.
More clarity on the state of US-China trade negotiations was still awaited.
Consumer confidence and JOLTs job openings are also scheduled for the day, while US Q1 GDP and nonfarm payrolls are expected later in the week.
Four of the “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap stocks – Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.com – will report quarterly results this week.
“It shouldn’t really be especially surprising that participants took something of a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to proceedings … with conviction lacking across the board, and markets largely meandering along in a relatively directionless fashion,” said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.
At 6.47am, Dow E-minis were up 104.00 points, or 0.26%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 7 points, or 0.13%, while Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 30.75 points, or 0.16%.
The S&P 500 closed yesterday with marginal gains, rising for a fifth straight session in its best winning streak since November.
Indexes have clawed back some losses this month on hopes for a de-escalation in trade tensions between the US and China.
Still, all three major indexes remain down for the year, with the S&P 500 on track to fall about 1.5% this month.
The Q1 earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 10.9% from a year ago.
That is higher than an early-April estimate for a 7.8% rise, but many companies have warned of the new tariffs impacting their outlook.
NXP Semiconductors fell 8.5% after the company only slightly beat expectations for revenue, and announced CEO Kurt Sievers would retire by the end of the year and insider Rafael Sotomayor would succeed him.
US-listed shares of Spotify Technologies plunged 8% after it forecast current-quarter operating profit below Wall Street estimates.