Futures Reverse Early Gains; Disney Rallies
U.S. stock index futures erased their early gains to turn lower in choppy trading Wednesday, as investors parsed through a batch of mixed earnings news and looked for catalysts to further propel the recent rally.
No major economic reports are scheduled for release today.
"Corporate earnings in that case are likely to be the main focus for investors searching for catalysts," Ishaq Siddiqi, a market strategist at ETX Capital said in a morning note.
Stocks bounced back on Tuesday, wiping out most of the prior day's losses, boosting the Dow back near the widely-watched 14,000 level and the S&P 500 above 1,500.
Among earnings, Disney rallied after the media conglomerate posted quarterly results that exceeded Wall Street's expectations amid strong revenue growth in its media networks business and its theme parks. At least two brokerages raised their price target on the company.
Time Warner also climbed after the media company topped earnings expectations as cable network growth offset declines in film, TV, and publishing. The company also boosted its quarterly dividend by 11 percent.
CVS rose after the drugstore chain posted a quarterly profit that beat estimates and lifted its earnings forecast for the year on improved revenue growth from pharmacy services and retail drugstores.
News Corp, Visa and Yelp are among notable companies slated to report quarterly results after the closing bell.
European stocks were mixed as investors took a breather following the previous session's recovery rally, with euro zone banks lower amid renewed concerns over the health of the region's economy.
Meanwhile, Asian markets rallied, with Japanese stocks climbing to their highest in nearly five years on hopes of central bank monetary policy easing and optimism about the prospects for a global economic recovery.
Weekly mortgage applications gained last week even as interest rates climbed, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Crude oil inventories for last week will be released by the Energy Department at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Inventories rose by 5.947 million in the prior week.
—By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)
Coming Up This Week:
WEDNESDAY:Oil inventories; Earnings from News Corp, Visa, Akamai, Allstate, Green Mountain Coffee, Yelp
THURSDAY: Bank of England announcement, ECB announcement, jobless claims, productivity and costs, consumer credit, Fed balance sheet/money supply, chain-store sales; Earnings from Credit Suisse, Philip Morris, Sony, Cigna, Noble Energy, Sprint, NYTimes, Activision Blizzard, Hasbro, LinkedIn, Coinstar, Opentable
FRIDAY: International trade, wholesale trade, monthly crop report; Earnings from Nissan, Moody's
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