US Stock Futures Climb as Twitter and Tesla Top Earnings Forecasts

New York (Oct 27)  Stock futures climbed on Thursday morning after Tesla (TSLA) and Twitter (TWTR) each surpassed analysts' estimates in their recent quarters.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.2%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.14%, and Nasdaq futures added 0.19%.

Tesla rose more than 4% in premarket trading after reporting a surprise profit in its third quarter. The electronic automaker earned an adjusted 71 cents a share, far better than an expected net loss of 54 cents. Tesla hadn't reported a quarterly net profit in more than three years. Revenue surged 145% to $2.3 billion and topped estimates by $100 million. Tesla's adjusted gross margins also improved to 25% from 23.6% in the second quarter and full-year gross margins are expected to increase by 2 to 3 percentage points.

Twitter jumped 4% after besting quarterly estimates and detailing plans to cut 9% of its workforce. The Jack Dorsey-led company reported adjusted earnings of 13 cents a share on revenue of $616 million. Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of 9 cents a share on $606 million in revenue. Twitter has been in the crosshairs since a round of acquisition offers from Salesforce.com and Walt Disney fell apart earlier this month.

Ford (F) moved 1% lower in premarket trading after a recent safety recall drove profits sharply lower. Third-quarter net income fell 56% from a year earlier, though operating profit of 26 cents a share beat analysts' forecasts by 6 cents. Profits were reduced by $600 million in expenses related to a door-latch recall. Overall revenue fell 6%, dragged down by by weaker sales in the core U.S. market.

Source: TheStreet