U.S. Stocks Set To Open Higher After Yesterday’s Sell-Off

Republicans And Democrats Achieve No Progress In Stimulus Negotiations

It looks like traders have abandoned hopes that a new stimulus package will be negotiated before November elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recently stated that she remained optimistic about the deal but there are no additional signs of progress.

Nevertheless, S&P 500 futures are gaining ground in premarket trading as traders position themselves for a week full of earnings reports. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook will provide their quarterly reports this week.

If their reports are strong enough, the market may be able to shrug off virus worries and focus on the profitability of leading companies.

AMD Buys Xilinx For $35 Billion

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) decided to acquire its peer Xilinx for $35 billion in an all-stock deal. With this deal, AMD wants to get an additional advantage over its main competitor Intel.

The deal values Xilinx at $143 per share and is expected to close by the end of the next year. Currently, Xilinx shares are gaining more than 15% in premarket trading while AMD shares are gaining about 1%. Shares of Intel are flat.

The big deal in the semiconductor space has the potential to provide additional support to tech stocks during today’s trading session.

Durable Goods Orders Increased By 1.9% In September

The U.S. has just provided Durable Goods Orders report for September. On a month-over-month basis, Durable Goods Orders increased by 1.9% compared to analyst consensus which called for growth of 0.5%. Excluding Transportation, Durable Goods Orders increased by 0.8% compared to analyst consensus of 0.4%.

This report is a pleasant surprise after yesterday’s New Home Sales report which showed that New Home Sales declined by 3.5% month-over-month in September while analysts expected that they would grow by 2.8%. The surprising weakness of New Home Sales put additional pressure on stocks during yesterday’s trading session.

Today, the encouraging Durable Goods Orders report may provide some support to stocks and help traders to forget about their virus-related worries.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.