Stock futures inch higher after S&P 500 retreats from record

Stock futures inch higher after S&P 500 retreats from record

Futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes ticked higher at the start of the overnight session Wednesday evening after the S&P 500 retreated from record levels during the regular session.

Contracts tied to the Dow added 50 points, while those pegged to the S&P 500 rose about 0.2%. Nasdaq 100 futures advanced a similar 0.2%.

The moves in the overnight session came after the S&P 500 slipped from record levels during Wednesday's regular session as pressure on tech offset optimism sparked by the first round of major corporate earnings that largely exceeded expectations.

The broad equity benchmark dipped 0.4% after hitting a fresh record early on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained just 53 points.

The Nasdaq Composite lost about 1% during regular trading as Tesla fell nearly 4%, Netflix and Facebook dropped more than 2% each, and Amazon, Microsoft and Apple all dipped at least 1%.

With the first-quarter earnings season now underway, investors will on Thursday pore over financial results from snack company PepsiCo, asset manager BlackRock and both Citigroup and Bank of America.

The season began in earnest with bank results on Wednesday, when Goldman Sachs climbed more than 2% after blowing past analysts' expectations with record first-quarter net profits