By Amruta Khandekar and Shashwat Chauhan
(Reuters) -Futures for Wall Street's main stock indexes rose on Monday ahead of a busy week of earnings and interest rate decisions from major central banks including the Federal Reserve, while investors shrugged off concerns about the Middle East conflict.
Fierce air and artillery strikes rang out in Gaza as Israeli troops backed by tanks pressed into the Palestinian enclave with a ground assault that prompted more international calls for civilians to be protected.
However, the clashes had little impact on U.S. equity markets, with megacap names such as Nvidia, Amazon.com and Tesla up between 0.9% and 1.3% in premarket trading.
"The ground offensive in Gaza will still be causing some concern, but it has been largely expected," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"In the United States, the emphasis has returned to the resilience within the U.S. economy and that being a good thing rather than as an indicator that there could be a rate hike."
Geopolitical concerns as well as a surge in Treasury yields have weighed on U.S. equities this month, dragging the benchmark S&P 500 down over 10% from its intraday high in July.
On Monday, the yield on the ten-year note was at 4.89%, after having breached the 5% level earlier this month.
Adding to bond market worries, the U.S. Treasury is likely to boost the size of auctions for bills, notes, and bonds in the fourth quarter when it announces its financing plans this week to fund a worsening budget deficit. A subsequent rise in yields may further pressure stocks.
The Fed is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the end of its policy meeting on Nov. 1, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
However, certain parts of the economy have proved to be resilient, spurring concerns that the central bank could signal willingness to hold rates at their current level for longer than previously anticipated.
The October non-farm payrolls report due on Friday will be amongst the latest tests of the resilience of the world's largest economy.
The Bank of England and the Bank of Japan would also be announcing their verdict on rates later in the week.
On the earnings front, McDonald's rose 2.1% after beating estimates for third-quarter profit and sales.
Apple, Pfizer and Eli Lilly would be some of the major Wall Street companies reporting later in the week.
Of the 245 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 77.6% have beaten earnings estimates, as per LSEG data.
At 7:00 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 188 points, or 0.58%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 25 points, or 0.6%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 101 points, or 0.71%.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
