A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 17, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit

(Reuters) -Wall Street looked poised for a calm start on Tuesday, with futures trimming earlier losses as investors assess a wave of largely positive earnings from corporate giants.

At 08:15 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 17 points, or 0.04%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.01%, and S&P 500 E-minis were up 1.75 points, or 0.03%.

Earnings season kicked into high gear on Tuesday, with a flurry of corporate results setting the tone. General Motors surged 11.2% in premarket trade after a brighter tariff outlook helped the automaker raise its full-year guidance.

Peer Ford rose 2.7%, with investors eyeing its results due on Thursday.

In consumer staples, Coca-Cola gained 2.7%, refreshing investor sentiment with a better-than-expected third quarter on both revenue and profit, driven by unwavering demand for its sodas.

Philip Morris rose 1.4% after hiking its annual profit forecast for the third time this year.

In the defense sector, GE Aerospace gained 2.5% after raising its full-year profit forecast, while Lockheed Martin and RTX upgraded their full-year profit and revenue estimates. Their shares rose 1% and 4.9%, respectively.

Among health insurers, Elevance beat profit expectations, sending its shares higher and lifting peers UnitedHealth and Humana.

Northrop Grumman, however, slipped 1.3% after trimming its sales outlook.

Heavyweights such as Tesla, IBM, Procter & Gamble and Intel are scheduled to report their earnings this week. Netflix, which is due to report results after market close, rose 0.6%.

However, analysts caution strong earnings alone may not be enough to keep the rally alive as valuations are already stretched and indexes are flirting with record highs. Investors are zeroing in on margin resilience and forward guidance, especially as trade tensions linger and inflation remains sticky.

"It could disappoint investors if companies don't actually beat the estimates by a large amount, even though these estimates are already huge," said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.

"Clearly there's no desire to be a seller right now because everyone's expecting the earnings season to be good."

Regional bank earnings are also in focus to get a closer read on the sector's health after fears of systemic stress sparked a selloff last week.

All three major indexes had closed with gains of more than 1% on Monday, marking their best day in over a week, fueled by AI-driven optimism and upbeat earnings expectations.

Markets also received a boost after White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Monday the U.S. government shutdown was likely to end this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump also struck a positive tone on trade, saying he expects to reach a "fair deal" with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom he is expected to meet on the sidelines of next week's economic summit in South Korea, while downplaying tensions over Taiwan.

Among other stocks, Fluor jumped 5.3%, after reports said activist investor Starboard Value had taken a nearly 5% stake in the construction firm.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Krishna Chandra Eluri)