Wall Street shares are seen higher, according to futures trade, after a positive close yesterday, and as Hurricanje Harvey and tensions over North Korea's missile program continue to dominate headlines.
Nasdaq futures are around 7.5 points ahead, while the Dow Jones is 15 points ahead. The S&P 500 is trading around flat at the time of writing.
At lunch, in London, the premier index, the FTSE 100 was up around 30 points or 0.4% at 7,367 with attention turning to the US to look for further direction.
It remains to be seen whether it is short covering or genuine bullish buying, nonetheless, Wall Street’s pre-market indicators are heading north.
In equities , tech behemoth Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is likely to be among those stocks in focus, particularly for the horde of retail investors that follow its every move, as the iPhone maker’s value is now closing in on 1 trillion dollars.
Tuesday brought news of Apple’s next product launch – the next iPhone (that’s #8) – which is due out next month.
Apple shares nudged 0.42% higher in pre-market to stand at $163.
Meanwhile, analyst are expecting Chico's FAS Inc (NYSE:CHS), the women's clothing chain, to earn $0.21 per share on revenue of $579.38 million in its latest quarter.
Chico's FAS will release earnings before the bell.
The group soared over 12% to $6.86 in after-hours trading.
Elsewhere, Caleres Inc (NYSE: CAL) , the footwear giant, unveiled stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter yesterday and shares stepped up 3.18% to $25.60 in the after-hours trading session.
Caleres Inc. tops Street 2Q forecasts https://t.co/djw2RogFvj
— News Finance (@newsfinance15) 30 August 2017
Second quarter EPS (earnings per share) came in at $0.48, $0.03 better than the analyst estimates of $0.45 a share.
In other results Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI) is expected to report before trading starts and is expected by the Street to post quarterly earnings at $1.15 per share on revenues of $1.40bn.
Analog Devices shares are up over 4% to $83 in pre-market deals.