US Stock Futures Steady as Investors Await Tech Earnings and Monitor Trade Developments

US stock futures were largely unchanged on Sunday night, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down 27 points, or 0.05%, S&P 500 futures off by 0.04%, and Nasdaq 100 futures dipping 0.03%. Investors are closely watching trade developments after the White House reaffirmed its tariff stance. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described August 1 as the "hard deadline" for countries to begin paying tariffs, but noted that discussions could continue beyond that date.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are coming off a week of record highs, rising 0.6% and 1.5% respectively, while the Dow ended slightly lower. The positive momentum follows a strong start to earnings season, with more than 86% of the 59 S&P 500 companies reporting so far surpassing expectations, according to FactSet.

Market attention is turning to major tech companies, with Alphabet and Tesla set to report earnings this week. These firms, part of the so-called Magnificent Seven, are anticipated to drive earnings growth for the second quarter. FactSet's John Butters projects the Magnificent Seven will see 14% earnings growth, compared to 3.4% for the rest of the S&P 500.

"We're at an all time high for the [S&P 500] right at the beginning of earnings season," said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial. "If we can get through this earnings season with not too many major failures, I think that is really, really important at this point, if we want to continue this upward momentum that we have in the market."

Investors are also awaiting the June reading of leading economic indicators, scheduled for release Monday morning. Among the companies reporting earnings Monday are Verizon Communications and Domino's Pizza.