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Futures: Dow down 0.02%, S&P 500 down 0.04%, Nasdaq up 0.03%
Oct 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures hovered near record highs on Tuesday, pausing after a rally in the previous session as investors focused on major corporate earnings and a much-anticipated Federal Reserve policy decision expected later in the week.
Market participants are entering one of the busiest weeks of the third-quarter earnings season, with at least 172 of the S&P 500 companies scheduled to release results.
Popular names such as UnitedHealth UNH.N, UPS UPS.N, Royal Caribbean RCL.N, D.R. Horton DHI.N, JetBlue JBLU.O and PayPal PYPL.O, among others, are expected to report before the bell.
The spotlight will be on megacaps later in the week, when Microsoft MSFT.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O, Apple AAPL.O, Amazon AMZN.O and Meta META.O are expected to report earnings.
Artificial intelligence has been the bulwark of the bull-market rally on Wall Street that marked its three-year anniversary this month and traders will scrutinize how companies are monetizing the technology as spending continues to grow.
Fed officials will meet later in the day to discuss interest rates and plans to end the central bank's "quantitative tightening" policy, which Chair Jerome Powell hinted at earlier. The central bank is due to announce its verdict on Wednesday.
The U.S. government has been shut down for nearly a month, delaying crucial economic data and forcing traders to rely on private releases and corporate announcements.
Amazon and Paramount PSKY.O were the latest companies to announce layoffs, according to different sources. Separately, the Conference Board's consumer confidence report, along with surveys by the Richmond and Texas Federal Reserves, are expected to be released on Tuesday.
Most major brokerages now expect the U.S. central bank to lower borrowing costs by 50 basis points by the year-end.
At 5:44 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 fell 10 points, or 0.02%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 3 points, or 0.04%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 rose 6.75 points, or 0.03%.
Among top movers, semiconductor licenser Rambus RMBS.O slid 15% after missing quarterly profit expectations.
NextEra Energy NEE.N gained 2.6% after the energy company reached a nuclear energy deal with Google GOOGL.O.
Qorvo QRVO.O jumped 10.2% after a report said rival Skyworks Solutions SWKS.O had held talks in recent months to buy the smartphone chipmaker.
Investors are optimistic that U.S. President Donald Trump will strike a long-awaited trade deal with China during his Asia tour.
Trump has just signed a deal with Japan to mine and process critical minerals and rare earths. U.S.-listed shares of rare earth miners such as Trilogy Metals TMQ.N and NioCorp Developments NB.O slipped 1% and 2.6%, respectively, and looked set to extend Monday's declines after a U.S.-China truce pausing tariffs and export curbs on the minerals.
Optimism around trade deals weighed on safe-havens such as gold and silver that have rallied recently. The declines pressured U.S.-listed shares of precious metal miners such as Gold Fields GFI.N and Harmony Gold HMY.N, which lost more than 4% each.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
((johann.mcherian@thomsonreuters.com))