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Futures: Dow down 0.25%, S&P 500 down 0.01%, Nasdaq up

0.03%

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Futures tracking Wall Street's main

indexes paused on Thursday as lackluster quarterly updates from

Tesla and IBM ( IBM ) weighed on sentiment, while simmering U.S.-China

trade tensions kept investors on the edge.

Tesla shares were down 3.3% in premarket trading,

after its third-quarter profit fell short of market estimates. A

revenue beat offered little relief, as Wall Street grappled with

fading optimism.

The electric vehicle maker's results kicked off the

"Magnificent Seven" earnings parade, a group now commanding

nearly 35% weight on S&P 500, with the power to steer the

market's direction.

IBM ( IBM ) dropped 6.6% after the mega-cap company recorded

a slowdown in growth in its key cloud software segment.

U.S. equity markets, having flirted with record highs, lost

steam amid a whirlwind of earnings reports and profit-taking.

While most companies have outpaced analyst expectations,

their cautious outlooks have cast a shadow over the rally. And

with benchmark moves muted this week, investors are parsing

earnings reports line by line to justify lofty equity

valuations.

At 05:43 a.m., Dow E-minis were down 116 points, or

0.25%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 0.5 point, or 0.01% and

Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 6.75 points, or 0.03%.

IonQ ( IONQ ) and Rigetti Computing ( RGTI ) jumped more

than 12% each, while D-Wave Quantum ( QBTS ) surged 16.7% after

the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. President Donald

Trump's administration was in talks with several Quantum

computing companies to take equity stakes in exchange for

federal funding.

Molina Healthcare ( MOH ) plunged 20.8% after slashing its

annual profit forecast. Among other U.S. health insurers,

Centene ( CNC ) dropped 6.2%, UnitedHealth ( UNH ) fell 1.6% and

Humana lost 1.6%.

Intel ( INTC ) slipped 0.4% ahead of its results

aftermarket.

T-Mobile and American Airlines ( AAL ) rose more

than 1% each ahead of their results before the bell.

DATA DROUGHT DRAGS ON

As the U.S. government shutdown stretched into its

twenty-third day, Thursday's usual reading of weekly jobless

claims data will be absent, leaving investors in the dark.

With the data pipeline clogged, attention shifts to Friday's

core CPI, expected to hold steady at 3.1% - potentially the

Federal Reserve's only clear inflation signal ahead of its

policy meeting next week.

Markets have already priced in a 25-basis-point rate cut,

with traders betting the Fed will ease again in December.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report said the Trump administration

was weighing sweeping curbs on high-tech exports to China - from

laptops to jet engines - in retaliation for Beijing's latest

restrictions on rare earth shipments. The report pushed markets

lower on Wednesday, injecting fresh uncertainty.