(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock

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Futures: Dow up 0.03%, S&P 500 up 0.1%, Nasdaq up 0.01%

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Netflix ( NFLX ) drops after earnings miss

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Texas Instruments ( TXN ) slips after fourth quarter results

(Updates prices)

By Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit

Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were subdued

on Wednesday, as investors treaded carefully through the thick

of earnings season, with Netflix's ( NFLX ) weak profit pressuring market

sentiment.

Shares of Netflix ( NFLX ) fell 6.4% in premarket trading

after the streaming giant missed Wall Street's third-quarter

earnings targets.

At 06:42 a.m., Dow E-minis were up 14 points, or

0.03%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 0.75 points, or 0.01%,

and S&P 500 E-minis were up 8.5 points, or 0.13%.

A 7.6% drop in Texas Instruments ( TXN ), following

lower-than-expected revenue and profit forecasts from the

chipmaker, weighed on Nasdaq futures.

Peers Microchip Technology ( MCHP ) dropped 2.7%, while NXP

Semiconductors ( NXPI ) and ON Semiconductor lost more

than 2% each.

With equities hovering near record highs and valuations

stretched thin, investors need more than earnings beats to

justify lofty price tags.

Despite strong results from several big names on Tuesday,

markets remained indecisive. The S&P 500 ended virtually

unchanged, the Nasdaq dipped slightly, while the Dow

outperformed, closing up 0.5%.

So far, 78 S&P 500 companies have reported, with 87% beating

estimates, according to LSEG data. Analysts expect third-quarter

earnings growth of 9.2% year-on-year, up from 8.8% at the start

of the month.

All eyes are now on Tesla, which will kick off

'Magnificent Seven' earnings after markets close. Its shares

rose 0.2%.

AT&T ( T ) added more wireless subscribers than expected for

the third quarter, sending its shares up 2.2%.

"Investors will also be on the alert for further tech

tie-ups, such as the recent partnership between chipmaker AMD

and OpenAI," Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS

Global Wealth Management, said.

GEOPOLITICS AND DATA TROUBLES

Geopolitical jitters continued. A planned summit between

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin

was put on hold, while uncertainty swirled around a potential

meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Despite recent signs of tensions thawing between Washington

and Beijing, Trump reignited doubts on Tuesday, saying the

meeting with Xi "maybe won't happen."

Meanwhile, Trump refused top Democratic lawmakers' request

to meet until the three-week-old U.S. government shutdown ends.

With the shutdown stalling the release of key economic data,

Federal Reserve policymakers may be forced to navigate next

week's policy meeting without a full picture of the economy.

Still, Friday's consumer price report could offer some

clarity on inflation. September's core CPI is expected to hold

steady at 3.1%.

Among other share moves, GE Vernova ( GEV ) added 0.8% after

posting a third-quarter profit.

Mattel ( MAT ) shares slipped 6% after the Barbie-maker

missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and

profit.

Alphabet almost erased losses after a 2.4% fall on

Tuesday. Bloomberg News reported Anthropic was in talks with

Google to secure additional computing power valued in the high

tens of billions of dollars.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru;

Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shinjini Ganguli)