Premarket futures indicated a higher open for stocks in New York as numerous blue-chip earnings topped expectations and investors awaited the beginning of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's two-day economic report to Congress.
Futures for the S&P 500 were up 4.1 points at 953.1, and were 5.5 points above fair value. Futures on the Nasdaq were rising 5.3 points to 1545.75, and were 3.32 points below fair value.
Caterpillar(CAT Quote) shares were rising 12.4% to $41.20 early after it posted better-than-expected quarterly profit and upped its full-year outlook.
Fellow industrial Dow component DuPont (DD Quote) said its second-quarter profit tumbled 61% on lower sales volume and charges, although it beat estimates on an adjusted basis. Merck(MRK Quote) and Coca-Cola (KO Quote) also topped profit estimates.
The major indices extended gains by more than 1% on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average settling in positive territory for the year after more earnings and reports that CIT Group (CIT Quote) had made a deal for rescue financing. The small business lender confirmed late Monday that it has secured a $3 billion loan facility from a group of major bondholders.
In other news, Yahoo! (YHOO Quote), which is slated to report its earnings after the market close, is expected to launch its new homepage Tuesday, according to published reports. That would be months earlier than originally planned.
Wall Street also will be watching for any new clues to the state of the economic recovery as Bernanke begins his semiannual two-day report to Congress.
Economic data was again due to be on the light side Tuesday with just a report on crude oil inventories due out at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
