* Futures up: Dow 0.1%, S&P 500 0.4%, Nasdaq 0.8%
* Domino's Pizza gains after Q2 revenue beat
* Memory chipmakers lead gains
* Alphabet, Tesla and Intel ( INTC ) to report earnings later in the
week
(Updates before market open)
By Ragini Mathur and Avinash P
July 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were on track
to open higher on Monday, as chip stocks recovered from last
week's pullback and investors awaited a key slate of earnings
from major technology companies that have powered the market's
AI-driven rally.
The second-quarter earnings season will pick up pace later
this week, with reports due from several major companies,
including Alphabet, Tesla, Intel ( INTC ) and
IBM ( IBM ).
Investors will closely watch earnings from Intel ( INTC ) and Texas
Instruments ( TXN ) for signals on whether the semiconductor
sector can regain momentum after a sharp reversal.
A surge in AI capital spending by hyperscalers has been a
major driver behind this year's market gains, lifting chip
stocks and other companies that are seen as the beneficiaries of
the buildout, and helping the tech-heavy U.S. indexes hit record
highs.
But last week's pullback raised concerns that the rally had
run too far.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index ended Friday
more than 20% below its late-June record high, confirming a
bear-market decline. It was still up about 65% year to date.
On Monday, memory chipmakers were leading the gains in
broadly higher semiconductor stocks.
Western Digital ( WDC ), Seagate Technology ( STX ), Micron
Technology ( MU ) and SanDisk ( SNDK ) were up between 3.7% and
4.7% in premarket trading.
"There's just a little less room for error in the market at
this point. Any sort of events or earnings news could probably
move the market down," said Jack Herr, senior investment analyst
at GuideStone Funds.
"As we move into the second half of the year, market
expectations are higher than they were before".
Markets are expecting S&P 500 earnings growth of 26% for the
second quarter, year-on-year, up from an earlier estimate of
23.7%, according to data compiled by LSEG.
At 08:44 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 73 points, or
0.14%, and S&P 500 E-minis were up 27.75 points, or
0.37%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 235 points, or 0.82%.
Last week's declines in major U.S. indexes came despite
benign inflation data that eased some concerns about a Federal
Reserve rate increase this month, and a solid start to
second-quarter earnings season from major U.S. banks.
Markets are pricing in about a 12% chance of a quarter-point
rate hike at the Fed's July meeting and a roughly 53% chance of
another hike in September, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
Investors were closely watching the developments in the
U.S.-Israeli war with Iran after a recent escalation in the
nearly five-month-old conflict.
Brent crude briefly climbed above $90 a barrel for
the first time since early June on renewed disruption to
shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran's Foreign
Ministry said mediators had recently presented proposals to
Tehran.
Among other premarket movers, Domino's Pizza gained
6.2% after the pizza chain's quarterly revenue edged past Wall
Street estimates.
(Reporting by Ragini Mathur and Avinash P in Bengaluru; Editing
by Shinjini Ganguli)